Auckland airport profit takes off
Rising passenger numbers and new air links have pushed Auckland International Airport’s firsthalf profit higher.
The country’s busiest airport said yesterday that its profit for the six months ended December 31 rose 17 per cent to $165.9 million, as traffic and rising retail revenue continue to increase.
Passenger numbers grew 6.4 per cent to 10 million, both domestically and internationally.
Chairman Henry van der Heyden said the airport’s fiveyear, $1.8 billion development plan continued to gather pace.
‘‘We continued to invest more than $1 million every working day on our core airport infrastructure and there are now 53 aeronautical projects under way across the airport each in excess of $1m.’’
Despite flattening tourist numbers, chief executive Adrian Littlewood said there was plenty of growth left for airport traffic. ‘‘The sheer number of people in Asia wanting to travel – it feels like we’ve only just scratched the surface on that, so I don’t think there’s any risk of a lack of demand.’’
While he couldn’t comment on the widespread rumour that Air New Zealand will soon announce direct flights to Chicago from Auckland, Littlewood said the airline had some aspirations for extra destinations.
Tourist visa approvals had risen early in 2018, which was another good sign for the airport, Littlewood said.
He confirmed that plans to build a second runway – to be operating by 2028 – were on track, as was work to improve traffic around the busy airport site.
The airport has long planned a second runway to cope with an expected doubling of visitors over the next 25 years.
Passenger numbers are forecast to reach 40 million a year by 2044, up from 19 million last year.
During the period, underlying profit after tax rose nearly 9 per cent to $133.1m, supported by a near 7 per cent rise in revenue to $332.4m.