ASCA'S MPUMI MPOFU: READY FOR TAKE-OFF

Ms Mpumi Mpofu has occupied the hot seat as Chief Executive of ACSA, the Airports Company of South Africa for a tumultuous past four years.

- GUY LEITCH

Mpofu has a postgraduate degree in town planning from Coventry University and brings extensive experience to her role as head of ACSA, from over 25 years senior management in transport, local government and infrastructure development.

Mpofu’s first key exposure to airport management was in 2010, the year South Africa hosted the FIFA Soccer World Cup, for which Mpofu headed up ACSA’s development and redevelopment programme.

She has also been instrumental in the development of South Africa’s Airlift Strategy which aims to apply a holistic approach to global aviation in support of improved South African air connectivity.

As a monopoly, ACSA aeronautical pricing is determined from a series of ‘permissions’ negotiated with government and the airline users. Despite strong criticism from bodies such as IATA, the government has managed to maintain a benign status with the users for both ACSA and ATNS.

For 2023 a 3.1% tariff increase was approved by the regulator. Mpofu says that ACSA has been looking to maintain a 50:50 split between aeronautical and non-aeronautical revenue, but says the constraints on the two revenue streams are largely interdependent, because non-aeronautical revenue is driven by aeronautical activity.

Mpofu accepted the challenge of being CEO of ACSA at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. A key objective has been to rebuild ACSA’s balance sheet and income statement. Under her leadership, ACSA reported an improvement in earnings to R2-billion for the financial year ended March 31, 2023, from R342-million in the 2022 financial year. Revenue of R6-billion for 2023 was up by 55% compared with R3.9-billion posted for the prior financial year. As a key performance indicator of her management, ACSA has tightly controlled operating expenditure, which only increased by 10% to R3.5-billion.