This SOE’s profits more than doubled

Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) has announced a “record net profit” of R1,1 billion for the 2024/2025 financial year, more than double the previous year’s figures, despite a particularly challenging year.

The state-owned entity revealed its financial results on 25 August, showing a vast improvement from the 2023/2024 financial year, when the company achieved a net profit of R472 million. 

The company’s revenue grew by 13%, of which, 49% originates from non-aeronautical streams. This includes retail and property rentals. 

Capital expenditure has risen from R568 million to R861 million, which the company has said is being used to expand airport infrastructure to support long-term growth. 

The company credited its success to a healthy recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Current CEO Mpumi Mpofu took over the company in 2019. 

This is the first year in which the company shifted out of a five-year recovery period following the pandemic and entered into five years of innovation and expansion. 

As part of this, Mpofu said the company is looking to invest in digitisating the airports to keep up with the rest of the world. This includes incorporating Artificial Intelligence and biometrics.

An analysis of South Africa’s biggest source markets for tourism showed modest increases in passengers from Europe and South America, with the largest increase of 8.5% from Brazil.

Mpofu said ACSA’s resilience in the face of this year’s challenges, as well as its financial diligence and a renewed focus on managing long-term financial sustainability, is the reason for the financial improvements. 

A year of challenges 

“Our performance this year has been a story of contrasts, strong financial recovery on the one hand and operational headwinds on the other,” Mpofu said. 

She added that ACSA has been challenged this year more than any year before, with the company facing operating difficulties that led to “unprecedented service disruptions.”

“Some of these challenges were a reflection of our inability to keep a close eye on all the aspects of our infrastructure, the level of deterioration and the risk this poses,” Mpofu acknowledged.

The company came under fire in January, when a fuel pump failure occurred at Cape Town International Airport, and shortly afterwards, due to a fuel shortage at OR Tambo International Airport.

Furthermore, the state-owned entity was implicated in failures in South Africa’s national Air Traffic Navigation Systems (ATNS), leading to flight delays and cancellations at several airports, including George and King Phalo. 

At the time, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said that these issues were caused by “incompetent leadership, often due to ANC cadre deployment” in ATNS and ACSA.

At the results presentation, ACSA CEO blamed these problems on ageing infrastructure and a lack of maintenance. 

”Those who remember Jan Smuts Airport will know the problems we experience at OR Tambo are related to the oldest parts of the airport that are starting to show strain,” she said

The company has now reviewed its preventative maintenance systems and operational efficiency measures.

She added that global challenges, including the war in Ukraine and the conflict in Israel, added to the difficulties faced by the company. 

These conflicts had a strong impact on global and national aviation, including ACSA’s financial performance, according to Mpofu. 

The announcement of a 30% reciprocal tariff by the United States was another challange that ACSA faced this year.

Mpofu said this caused significant uncertainty in the final quarter of the financial year, which limited the success of South Africa’s airports.

However, she added that recent reports indicate that the tariffs will be “like water off a duck’s back” for South Africa’s aviation sector. 

“That’s a sign of the resilience of this economy,” she said. “But we look forward to understanding the implications of the tariffs more fully.”