Airports of Thailand a top performer against key financial measures

Three years ago, surprisingly, the partially privatised Airports of Thailand (AoT) emerged as the most valuable airport group in the world as measured by market capitalisation, ahead of the also partially privatised, but much bigger, AENA (Spain).

Despite its recent travails, AoT still remains at the top of that particular tree with a capitalisation that is barely diminished.

That is also surprising because Thailand's exposure to the pandemic has recently been severe, with international travel falling to virtually zero over a long period of time. Only now is domestic air travel picking up again, and it will be a long time still until international tourism gets anywhere near back to normal.

Other data arising from a consultant's update reveal that the Auckland and Sydney airports have held firm (which may impact on a takeover bid at Sydney), that revenue growth is strongest in Mexico (within the peer group), and that both European and Chinese airports are clustered in a financial classification zone which they would not wish to inhabit for much longer.