Airport pricing row off to court

By DANIEL RIORDAN

Wellington International Airport is taking the Commerce Commission to the High Court over the regulator's review of the prices that airports charge airlines.

The commission has been investigating the issue for several years and is due to report to Commerce Minister Paul Swain by August 1.

Last September it held a series of public hearings after receiving submissions from interested parties, including airlines, airports and their users.

The airport company, owned 66 per cent by listed investment company Infratil and 33 per cent by the Wellington City Council, wants access to extra information the commission has received since the public hearings.

Chief executive John Sheridan said the airport was concerned that the commission had received new material after finishing its consultation phase. The airport had asked to see the material but the commission had refused.

It wanted the court to issue an interim order requiring the commission to give it the material and provide it with an opportunity for comment before the commission reported to the minister.

The High Court at Wellington is expected to set a date for a hearing on Monday.

Commission spokeswoman Jackie Maitland said that now the matter was before the courts, the commission would not be commenting.

Tim Brown, an Infratil executive and a director of the airport company, said the commission's continual postponements of the report's release date after last September's hearings were a concern.

The airport had been asking the commission to see the new material since before Christmas without success.

At the heart of the dispute is the way airports value their assets, which in turn determines the fees they can charge without running foul of the commission's monopoly pricing guidelines.

Brown said the commission's findings on regulation within other industries, including telecommunications, indicated it might have altered its views on airport pricing since its draft report was issued last July.

That report surprised most commentators by veering away from the optimised deprival valuation method generally used to measure utilities' assets in favour of a historic cost basis, which typically places a lower value on the assets.

Brown said the airport's decision to go to court could be seen as an insurance policy against the commission's findings being at odds with the airport's own views.

"It may be we get the report and we see it's fine, but if not ... "