The opening of a new international passenger terminal at the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) in 2018 has led to an increase in passenger and air traffic, thus, boosting revenues.
Total passenger volume at the MCIA increased by 15% to 11.5 million passengers in 2018, Megawide Construction Corporation said in a statement on April 10, 2019.
Air traffic volume also increased by 15%, with international traffic growing by 19% and domestic traffic by 14%.
Megawide, which forms part of airport concessionaire GMR Megawide Cebu Airport Corporation (GMCAC), said its airport operations delivered revenues of P3 billion, 30% higher year-on-year, and contributed 20% to its total consolidated revenues.
About seven out of 10 passengers at the MCIA, or 67%, were domestic. The volume of domestic passengers grew by 12% in 2018 while international passenger traffic increased at a faster rate of 23%.
The Megawide statement attributed the improvement in passenger and air traffic to the entry of additional airlines and increase in both domestic and international flights.
MCIA opened 12 international routes in 2018, including eight to China, and 2 domestic routes to Ormoc City in Leyte and Catbalogan City in Samar via AirJuan.
The airport serves 30 domestic and 20 international destinations as of February 2019. It has six local and 19 international airline partners.
“We continue to see the growth in both international and local travel as an opportunity to promote Cebu not only as a destination but as a hub to other destinations in Visayas and Mindanao. We intend to make the most of these prospects by embarking on new developments within the MCIA concession area to attract more traffic and complement our existing facilities,” said Megawide chairman and CEO Edgar Saavedra.
Megawide and partner GMR Infrastructure Ltd. of India signed a 25-year concession agreement in 2014 for the P17.5-billion maintenance and operation and upgrading of the MCIA.
It was the first airport project undertaken under the public private partnership (PPP) scheme. GMCAC is 60% owned by Megawide and 40% by GMR.
On July 1, 2018, GMCAC started operations of the MCIA Terminal 2 (T2), which increased the airport’s capacity by about 200% to 12.5 million a year.
T2, a resort-themed terminal, serves solely as an international passenger terminal. Renovation of the old terminal building, which will be used for domestic operations, is ongoing.
Megawide said the T2 was one of two flagship projects that it completed in 2018, the other being the Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange (PITX).
“Not only did we secure our space as a transport infrastructure developer, we are also witnessing the results of our diversification plan to mitigate the natural cyclicality of construction,” Saavedra said.
The PITX, which opened in November 2018, is also expected to contribute to the company’s topline in 2019. From an average daily foot traffic of less than 10,000 in December 2018, PITX is currently hosting an average of at least 40,000 passengers daily.
Megawide reported an unaudited consolidated net profit of P1.8 billion in 2018.
While net profit was affected by cyclicality in the construction business, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) remained healthy at P4.76 billion, an 8% increase from the previous year, propelled by the strong performance of the airport business.
The company posted consolidated revenues of P15.11 billion in 2018 compared with P19.16 billion for the same period in 2017. Construction remained the core revenue contributor at 78% while 20% came from airport operations and the balance of 2% from airport merchandising. (Ventures Cebu)
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