Airport hits back at Air NZ claims of overcharging

Auckland International Airport has accused Air New Zealand of using false and misleading figures to bolster its case against airport landing charges.

The airport was lambasted by the airline at its annual meeting last week, with claims that it had some of the most expensive landing charges in the world.

Now the airport has hit back at its annual meeting, with chief executive Don Huse yesterday saying Air NZ was "game playing" and spreading false information about its charges and expansion plans.

Airlines and the airport are in the middle of a multi-year consultation plan over possible increases to landing charges. Auckland International Airport last raised its landing charges by 5 per cent in 2001 and is likely to increase them next in September 2007.

Constant tension between airlines and airports over pricing and charges is a worldwide feature of the aviation business. But the soaring financial success of Auckland International Airport, with its ever-increasing dividends and regular capital returns to shareholders, has come at a time of increasing pressure on airline profits.

Air NZ chairman John Palmer said last week that "unconstrained monopolies" like airports were overcharging and damaging the country's tourism and export industries.

Operating profit margins for Auckland airport were more than 75 per cent compared with about 35 per cent for European airports. Palmer said airports were increasing the cost of travel by charging for investments in "unnecessarily extravagant improvements".

But Huse launched a robust defence of the airport's pricing, saying Air NZ's comparisons were misleading.

Palmer had compared the $5000 charge for landing a Boeing 747 jet at Auckland with the $3300 landing at Brisbane. But Huse said this ignored the fact that Brisbane charged planes again for taking off - which Auckland did not. Other airports charged planes while on the ground, which also did not happen at Auckland.

Comparing the "turnaround cost" of the two airports, which included other fees and charges, Auckland was cheaper than Brisbane.

Huse said the airline chairman's claim lacked credibility.

"If there is a complaint to be laid, Mr Palmer should do so when the new airfield prices are actually set, two years hence."

Shareholders were also told yesterday that while growth at the airport was easing when compared with recent years, the trend remained positive.

Chairman Wayne Boyd said the financial outlook for this year was an after-tax profit of above $100 million. Profit for the year ended June 30, 2005, was $105.6 million, up 12 per cent from the year before.