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| Malaysia Airline System Bhd (MAS) Friday announced in its latest financial report that it suffered significant losses of 198.5 million dollars. | ||
The Malaysian national carrier saw a net loss of 695 million ringgit (198.5 million U.S. dollars) in the first quarter of its financial year ending Dec. 31 last year.
The airlines recorded a net profit of 120 million (34.2 million U.S. dollars) in the corresponding period of the previous year.
MAS posted an operating loss of 138 million ringgit (39.4 million U.S. dollars) for the quarter from a profit of 66 million (18.8) a year ago.
Its revenue fell to 2.7 billion ringgit (771.4 million U.S. dollars) in the same quarter from 3.6 billion ringgit (1.0 billion U.S. dollars) of the previous corresponding period.
The company's net loss for the quarter included a derivative loss of 557 million ringgit (159.1 million U.S. dollars).
MAS said that its derivative loss consisted of 640.2 million ringgit (182.9 million U.S. dollars) in losses from fuel hedging contracts, 80.5 million ringgit (23 million U.S. dollars) gained from foreign currency hedging contracts and a 2.7 million ringgit (0.7 million U.S. dollars) gain from the interest rate hedging contracts.
The company said that the world airline industry was being hit by the global credit crisis and the threat of pandemic A/H1N1 flu.
MAS said that for the second quarter of 2009 as the low travel season period, it expected that the demand for air travel to remain soft.
(XFN)
