Future hazy for airport

REVENUE has crashlanded at Dunedin Airport amid the Covid19 pandemic, and the airport’s executive leadership says there will not be a return to normal in the foreseeable future.

Last year, the Dunedin City Councilcontrolled organisation, jointly owned by Dunedin City Holdings and the Crown, brought in $17.6 million in revenue and dealt with 1,077,475 passengers — nearly 21,000 people a week.

During the first four weeks of Level 4 lockdown, it handled fewer than 150 passengers a week.

The number of passengers passing through the airport in a ‘‘post Covid19 environment’’ could be half of what had previously been forecast, airport chief executive Richard Roberts said in a statement yesterday.

He declined to be interviewed by the Otago Daily Times, and the statement provided yesterday did not directly answer whether the company would be able to hold on to staff.

It is unclear from the company’s 2019 annual report how many people work at the airport, but last year the company spent $2.9 million on wages.

‘‘Other than the revenue from our dairy farms and rental housing, our revenue has basically been reduced to zero,’’ Mr Roberts said.

Before the Covid19 pandemic, Virgin Australia, now in administration, offered a regular service between Dunedin and Brisbane, as Dunedin Airport’s only international link.

While Mr Roberts said only about 4% of the airport’s passengers were international travellers, ‘‘they contributed significantly more than 4% to our business’’.

‘‘We must also consider that as many as 20% of the people flying domestically in New Zealand were visitors,’’ he said.

A Ministry of Transport spokesman has said the demand for domestic travel under Levels 4 and 3 had been ‘‘extremely limited’’, and flights to particular destinations would be restored once sufficient demand was established.

At Level 3, Dunedin Airport has returned to a sevendayaweek schedule, but only one round trip on a 68seat aircraft is scheduled, and Air NZ can only sell half the seats due to physical distancing requirements.

‘‘We are certain things will not be back to normal by any stretch of the imagination after lockdown,’’ Mr Roberts said.

‘‘We will most likely remain in the current situation, with many of us continuing to remain away from work or work from home for the foreseeable future.

‘‘In the least, all of our team will remain at 80% of our prelockdown pay until the end of the 12week period.

‘‘The executive and senior leadership team will be working on what exactly postlockdown will look like over the next week or so and we will advise all our team as to how we believe this will look.’’

The dividend the company pays is 60% of its operating surplus after tax, and was projected to be similar this year to last — about $1.4 million.

It was set to be more than $2 million next year before the global pandemic hit. — Additional reporting Debbie Porteous