Measuring Evidence Affecting the Financial Stability of Airport Operations in Malaysia

Abstract

The indicator of bankruptcy exposure for airport operations in Malaysia is calculated by using Altman’s Z”-score. Financial and non-financial attributes related to the bankruptcy exposure show multicollinearity, and the redundant information was identified and removed. The common period for the variables is from 1999-2021, which includes the period of COVID-19 pandemic. Models with a combination of financial and non-financial attributes further reduce the deviation between the estimated standard deviation of the residuals and the marginal standard deviation of the bankruptcy risk in comparison to models without the combination. The best model provides improvements in terms of the mean of the absolute errors (MAE), mean of absolute percentage errors (MAPE), and mean absolute scaled errors (MASE). Furthermore, all determinants in the best model are statistically significant. We suggest that the opportunity for optimisation, including total movements of passenger, cargo and mail, could reduce the company’s bankruptcy exposure. Findings indicate that reducing the financial leverage could improve the financial distress risk while liquidity, net operating margin, and asset turnover are positively contributed to the financial stability of the largest airport operator in Malaysia. If the marginal average of annual exposures to bankruptcy of 4.04% continues linearly into the future, the company is expected to transition from being financially stable to experiencing financial distress in 2030.