Africa-Press – Tanzania. Swissport Tanzania has not declared dividends for last year but sees business recovery on the horizon following a global rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine. The firm, the largest ground handling in the country, noted that the vaccination would uplift global and their aviation business, thus ducking crosswinds this year.
Last year, Swissport incurred a heavy net loss of 212 per cent (2.58bn/-) compared to net profit of 2.31bn/- in 2019, before the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic.
Swissport Chairman Jeroen de Clercq stated that the future of the aviation industry was still clouded with uncertainties, due to the on-going Covid-19 pandemic which continue to impose travel restrictions and cause declined passenger numbers.
“…It is our expectation that the global roll-out of Covid-19 vaccine programmes will accelerate business recovery,” Mr de Clercq stated further. He added in a statement
“In view of the reported loss, the board has not declared interim or final dividends for 2020”.
The chairman said in the country, business recovery, has been modestly encouraging because the ground handling business was now operating at around 55 per cent of the prepandemic volume while cargo had almost fully recovered.
“A significant number of our airline customers have resumed operations, albeit, with fewer frequencies and some are operating smaller aircraft compared to pre-Covid-19. “As a result, the company largely relied on domestic operations, which uses smaller aircrafts that command lower yields,” the chairman said.
Swissport, listed on Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE), said they had prepared their business outlook to reflect the current airlines’ performance trend and the expected recovery rate.
Mr de Clercq said the company was confident that the projections for this year ‘will be achieved. Swissport total income decreased by 25 per cent from 35.81bn/- in 2019 to 26.73bn/- while total operating costs declined by 7.0 per cent from 32.29bn/- to 30bn/’-.
“The decrease in revenue and profit was caused by the adverse impact of Covid-19,” the chairman stated.
Swissport Tanzania, which is a subsidiary of Swissport International, was incorporated in 1984 and is based in Dar es Salaam. The firm’s share was trading at 1,120/- a share has a market capitalization of 40.3bn/- as per yesterday.
