Airport CEO basks in glow of good news

By CHRIS DANIELS

Auckland International Airport chief executive Don Huse had his first introduction to the company's shareholders at their annual meeting yesterday, and judging by their reaction he will try to stay in the job as long as his predecessor John Goulter.

Goulter retired last year after 15 years on the job.

Huse was able to report great profits for the past year - $83.5 million, up from $71.5 million the year before.

Then he was able to say that the future was looking good too - airline capacity up 30 per cent for the summer season, with a forecast full-year profit of between $86 million and $88 million.

Chairman Wayne Boyd said conditions for the first four months of the financial year had been very good, with an 11.6 per cent jump in revenue and corresponding after-tax profit increase to $28.2 million when compared with last year.

Even Greenpeace congratulated the company - for moving quickly to address environmental concerns about its old, dirty incinerator and moving quickly towards a cleaner steam sterilisation method for processing quarantine goods.

While the past five years have been relatively quiet on the capital expenditure front, Huse said that the time for new spending was upon them.

In the medium term, a second international pier needed to be built.

This would be done incrementally, to meet increased demand and to accommodate the new, 550-seat Airbus A380 "superjumbo" aircraft that were expected to be flown by at least three of the carriers that use the airport.

New domestic terminal capacity was also needed, but this was subject to the continued growth of Air NZ, Qantas and the possible entry of Virgin Blue/Pacific Blue.

In the long term, money would be needed to complete the runway rehabilitation project that was to be completed in 2012.

A second runway, planned to run parallel to the existing one, will meet "the airport needs of the greater Auckland region for the next, say, 50 years plus," said Huse. This was a clear reference to the Government's plans to sell the Whenuapai air force base, a decision on which will be made next year.