Airline lobby blasts airport profit

Auckland International Airport has come under fire for not providing a quality service despite charging high fees.

Earlier this week the Board of Airline Representatives New Zealand (BARNZ), which represents 30 airlines and aviation-related companies in New Zealand, slammed Auckland Airport for its quality of service being ‘‘simply not good enough’’.

Now another lobby group, A4ANZ, which represents air- lines including Air New Zealand, Qantas Airways and Jetstar, has come out swinging against the national gateway.

In a submission to the Commerce Commission, A4ANZ said the airport had set prices that were not in the long-term interest of customers and more must be done to protect airport users from ‘‘the market power exerted by monopoly airports’’.

The airport gets revenue from landing charges, runway charges, international and domestic passenger charges, parking charges and bag check-in charges.

A4ANZ chairman Graeme Samuel said Auckland Airport was a monopoly ‘‘targeting excessive profits’’. It had been estimated the company had returned upwards of $3.6 billion in dividends to shareholders, he said.

House of Travel commercial director Brent Thomas said the airport could justify high fees if it was investing in its terminals. ‘‘They’re behind the eight ball in terms of that development.’’

Queues at security was one of the main problems, he said.

‘‘They have not kept up with the pace with the number of people going through that terminal. They’re in catch-up mode.’’

Aviation commentator Irene King said it was difficult to say whether Auckland Airport’s fees would be noticed by passengers. Airlines had been fighting the fees debate for years and successive governments had failed to address the problem, she said.

Auckland Airport was pricing right at the top of its range, King said. ‘‘That’s seen in the massive distributions they’ve made to shareholders. Perhaps they could gear themselves a little differently and take on more debt.’’

Infometrics senior economist Benje Patterson said the airlines’ complaints about fees were coming out at the same time as customer complaints about quality of service but the two issues were quite separate.

He thought it was ‘‘odd’’ the airlines referred to shareholder dividends. ‘‘That’s more of a corporate investor relations issue.’’

Patterson said he agreed that the quality of service at Auckland Airport was substandard, particularly regarding travelling between the two terminals.

‘‘There needs to be more investment and streamlining in getting people through.’’

Auckland International Airport declined to comment.