MacroAsia income drops

Lucio Tan-led MacroAsia Corp. saw its net income cut by more than half in the first quarter of 2012 over the year-ago level after its main subsidiary and aircraft maintenance operations incurred losses.

In a disclosure, MacroAsia said its net income slipped to P37.97 million in January to March from P83.36 million in 2011.

It said it would have lost more, if not for the growth of its in-flight catering and airport services operations.

MacroAsia said it booked consolidated service revenue of P456 million, a 46-percent increase from year-ago level.

“Increased passenger load and flight frequencies of serviced clients continued to drive our service revenue up in the first three months of 2012,” it said.

“In contrast, with the reduced volume of aircraft maintenance service requirements of its base clients, our associated company reported lower revenue and showed negative first-quarter end-result,” the company said.

MacroAsia’s aircraft maintenance operations are handled by Lufthansa Technik Philippines, a joint-venture firm with Germany’s Lufthansa group.

Revenue generated from the firm’s in-flight and other catering segment, which accounted for  66 percent of the consolidated revenue, was up by 63 percent to P300 million in the first quarter from P184 million. This was due to higher meal volume and passenger count during the period.

The company said its ground handling and aviation segment followed, consolidated revenue rising 66 percent to P106 million.

In the meantime, total direct cost for the first three months reached P311 million reflecting a 40-percent increase from last year’s P223 million.