Copenhagen Airports registers slight increase in revenues in Q3 2007

Nicole Mezzasalma

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Retail revenues suffer due to shop closures for refurbishment

Macquarie Airports (MAp)-owned Copenhagen Airports has reported EBITDA of DKr1.24bn ($239.4m) for the nine months to September 2007, an increase of 0.9% over the previous corresponding period. Revenues were up by 0.6% to DKr2.18bn ($420.9m) in the period, but commercial revenues were down by 29.8% to DKr888.4m ($171.6m) due to “retail disruption in the first half [of the year] related to the temporary closure of shops and the re-allocation of shop space during the start of refurbishments to provide a more pleasant shopping environment for passengers”, according to the company’s statement.

MAp CEO Kerry Mather said: “This is an important year for Copenhagen Airports, with the successful delivery of the central security check point, which resulted in an immediate improvement in passenger service, and an enhanced duty-free offer the key achievements. Naturally, results for the period have been affected by the disruption associated with the accelerated delivery of the project in the first half and the fine-tuning of such things as signage, layout and merchandising in the third quarter. Nevertheless, the underlying performance of the airport remains satisfactory and airport management maintains its expectation that underlying profit before tax for 2007 will be in line with that in 2006.”

She added: “Since the opening of the new walk-through duty-free store on June 1 2007, the fine-tuning mentioned above has seen sales per passenger improve progressively. As previously disclosed, revenues to the airport have been affected by lower minimum guaranteed revenues under the new contract. However, performance has improved during the third quarter with shopping centre revenue down by 5.9% on the third quarter of 2006 compared with a 19.4% decline in the first half of 2007 versus the previous corresponding period. Rental income and sales of services continued to perform well.”