INIA gains MVR 305 million in first quarter profits

Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) has said that Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA) gained a profit of MVR 305 million in the first quarter of 2013.

MACL said today that their current numbers show a profit of MVR 305 million in the first three months and that their target is to hit a MVR 1 billion in profits by the end of the year. They said that hopes are high that they will reach the estimated target.

Most of their profits came from jet fuel sales and duty free shops, MACL said. Although their jet fuel sales had dropped in January 2013 compared to the sales of GMR in January 2012, the company sold an additional 1.2 million liters of jet fuel for the month of February, which calculates to an increase of 7.8 percent compared to February last year. They also said their jet fuel sales for the month of March increased by 1.8 million liters, and that their duty free profits had gone up by 105 percent compared to the first quarter of 2012.

MACL took over the central airport in early December 2012. Until then, INIA managed by Indian infrastructure giant GMR. The recent Auditor General’s report following GMR’s departure has shown that up until September 2012, the government had suffered a loss of $ 23 million, as the former government had allowed the Airport Development Charges (ADC) to be exempted from the concession charges owed by GMR to MACL.