Auckland Airport fee hikes: Freightways counting the cost, warns of price increases

Freightways says the multi-billion dollar work at Auckland Airport is aimed at passenger facilities. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Freightways says planned landing fee increases at Auckland Airport will cost it more than $1 million over four years and push up costs for consumers.

The company’s chief executive Mark Troughear said the planned fee increases were “ridiculous” and would end up being passed on in charges.

“If Auckland Airport keeps pushing up the landing fees, they’ll [freight charges] have to keep going up. We have an issue with that because what the airport is talking about with us is some pretty meaty increases to landing fees.”

While Auckland Airport says its charges are lower than other airports, the fees for a typical freight aircraft movement at the airport, now $459, will increase to $1019 by the 2027 financial year.

The airport is already battling airlines over steep passenger fee increases, which are being used to pay for a multibillion-dollar upgrade of the terminal, transport links and associated infrastructure.

The upgrades are focused on passenger facilities.

“When you look at the scale of development they’re undergoing, none of that really is geared around providing services for freighters - it’s terminals,” said Troughear.

Freightways operates four Boeing 737 aircraft and with the existing landing fee schedule, they are charged $14 a tonne. Troughear said these fees would double over four years.

“We’re a little bit twixt and between about why we should wear an increase for landing the same plane on the same bit of asphalt every night.”

An Auckland Airport spokeswoman said it has two main types of airline charges – a terminal charge, calculated on a per-passenger basis, and an aircraft landing charge.

Freight-only aircraft do not pay the terminal charge.

“While we are making a significant investment in building a new domestic terminal, we also have a huge programme of work under way to improve the runway, taxiways, aprons and other airfield assets.”

The biggest airfield expansion in the airport’s history includes an upgrade of its fuel system and ongoing pavement and runway upgrades.

This was Auckland Airport’s key aeronautical infrastructure, said the spokeswoman, and it was vital that maintenance and upgrades took place to ensure the airfield’s ongoing safety and resilience.

Charges to freight-only airlines reflected investment in the assets they use every day, she said, and were rising from a very low base.

The airport’s price plans are now being assessed by the Commerce Commission.

The commission told the Herald it will in “due course” publish a summary and analysis of information disclosed on the forward-looking performance of Auckland Airport. The summary and analysis will express the commission’s views on the outcomes of the price setting - such as the airport’s profitability.

“Our regime aims to shine a light on any outcomes that are not in the long-term benefit of consumers,” said a spokeswoman.

In the past, Auckland Airport has reduced prices following the commission’s summary and analysis.

Troughear said Freightways would talk to the airport to try to understand where it was coming from. “But on face value, it would seem ridiculous.”

Auckland Airport has plans for replacing slabs in its runway and Troughear acknowledged it was work that would benefit both airline and freight users.

The airport and airlines have gone into battle following the unveiling of plans to more than double aeronautical charges in some cases, to pay for $5 billion in aeronautical infrastructure, including work to progress a new domestic terminal.

Airlines argue the big bill is being dumped on them – and passengers – too suddenly, while the airport says the work is long overdue.

Troughear said Freightways had good relationships with other airports it operated in -- Christchurch and Palmerston North.

The company’s Boeing 737 planes shift about 200 tonnes of freight a night between Auckland, Palmerston North and Christchurch.

A Cessna aircraft will be used in a trial of autonomous technology in Northland. Photo / Supplied

Drop the pilot

This week, Freightways businesses Fieldair, Parceline and New Zealand Couriers announced a deal with aviation technology firm Merlin to use aircraft employing advanced automation technology to operate in Northland.

The trial will deliver domestic courier items from the Boston-based Merlin’s NZ base at Kerikeri to Auckland and through to Palmerston North in an increasingly autonomous capacity.

“For now”, two pilots will continue to supervise the trips while the Merlin team integrates its software and hardware into the Cessna fleet. The aircraft can carry more than a tonne of freight.

Freightways trucks and couriers will then pick up the cargo and integrate the items into the nationwide courier network, creating efficiencies and another option for combating congestion or emergencies on the road.

Merlin will continue to work with New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to certify its systems before reducing to one-pilot flights and then going fully autonomous. Merlin recently announced that the CAA reviewed and approved the first stage of involvement in its four-step certification process, putting its technology -- the Merlin Pilot -- on a viable path to validation and certification.

Merlin was looking for a partner to commercially operate the Merlin Pilot in New Zealand. The system has been designed to significantly reduce pilot workload and eventually enable pilotless cargo operations, beginning from the Northland operating base.

This system is capable of managing all phases of flight between airfields, including voice communication with air traffic control.

The goal is to begin automated takeoff-to-touchdown flights once certified, and then continue to develop the Merlin Pilot, under CAA supervision, to enable fully autonomous flight.

Troughear said getting air freight to and from the extremities of a small country is often challenging, and the trial could result in better access to harder-to-reach places with urgent items such as medicine or supplies.

It would be especially useful when areas were cut off by flooding – such as Gisborne in the past week - or other emergencies. There was no timeline for moving towards being autonomous, he said.

“Because it’s really the first time it’s been done in the world, it is a little bit hard to know how long that might take to satisfy all the [regulatory] requirements.”

Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.