A combination of a substantial cut in airport fees, a weakening economy and lower traffic volumes has seen a massive drop in revenue and profit at Airports Company SA (Acsa). The state-owned entity said on Thursday that its profit for the year to March 31 2018 fell 58% to R843m from R2.006bn a year earlier. Revenue was down 20% to R6.925bn from R8.636bn in the previous period. Acsa owns and operates nine airports in SA. Acsa attributed the declines mainly to a 35% reduction in the aeronautical fees it was allowed to levy for the 2017-2018 year under its operator’s permission granted by an independent statutory regulatory committee. Acsa collects landing fees, passenger service charges and aircraft parking fees. These fees are set to increase by 5.8% in the 2018-2019 year and by 7.4% in 2019-2020. A delay in the permission being granted meant Acsa had to delay infrastructure spending, which pushed up repair and maintenance costs CEO Bongani Maseko said Acsa had anticipated the reduct...

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