World Cup falls short of ACSA's expectations

Airports Company South Africa reported that retail sales at the country's airports failed to live up to forecasts for the FIFA World Cup (dfnionline, 21-Sep-2010). While retail sales per passenger increased 15% year-on-year between 11-Jun-2010 and 11-Jul-2010, ACSA forecast an increase of 25%. ACSA spokesman Solomon Makgale attributed the disappointing performance to several factors, including the strong rand, the weak international economic environment and the early departure of several major countries from the tournament, such as England, Italy and France. ACSA handled 4.5 million passengers during the World Cup, an 8.2% increase on the same period in 2009.