Vietnam Airlines, ACV suffer heavy losses due to COVID-19
Vietnam Airlines, ACV suffer heavy losses due to COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has severely dragged down revenues of the Vietnam Airlines Corporation (Vietnam Airlines) and the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) in the second quarter of this year.
Vietnam Airlines reported VND6 trillion (US$257.1 million) in second-quarter revenue, down nearly 70 per cent from the previous quarter, as a result of a month-long social distancing order in April and the ongoing suspension of international flights.
The corporation suffered quarterly losses of VND4.03 trillion ($172.72 million), raising the total losses in the first half of the year to more than VND6.64 trillion.
In mid-July, the State-run firm estimated its revenue would halve to around VND50 trillion and losses would mount to VND13 trillion this year.
Vietnam Airlines is seeking an urgent bailout of VND12 trillion from the government to help it overcome difficulties.
By the end of the second quarter, its assets totalled VND66.69 trillion, a decline of 12.7 per cent from the beginning of the year and its equity shrunk by more than 38 per cent to close to VND11.43 trillion.
Meanwhile, ACV recorded post-tax losses of over VND365 billion from April to June as its revenues plunged VND76.6 per cent from the same period last year to over VND1.04 trillion.
A year earlier, the company enjoyed about VND1.7 trillion in profit.
The second-quarter losses have been offset by VND1.55 trillion in first-quarter post-tax profit before the coronavirus hit the aviation industry. In the first half of 2020, the airport operator posted more than VND1.19 trillion in post-tax profit.
ACV projected that the number of air passengers would fall by 41 per cent year-on-year to 69.2 million in 2020 while the volume of cargo going through 21 airports across Viet Nam would fall 13 per cent to 1.34 million tonnes.
