Auckland International Airport says its 2024 financial year delivered the country’s biggest airport a “strong return” of international airline capacity with international seat availability now back to 91% of 2019 levels.
The total number of passengers that went through the airport rose to almost 18.5 million, 17% higher than the prior year. Domestic passengers were up 5% to 8.5 million and international (including transit) passengers jumped 29% to 10.1 million.
The airport’s chair Patrick Strange says a total of 27 airlines flew non-stop between Auckland and 42 international destinations in the 2024 June-year, compared to 25 airlines and 40 destinations in the 2023 financial year.
“The lift in capacity, particularly on North American routes with a 48% increase in available seats, has not only benefited Kiwis but led to a 40% growth in North American visitors – an important economic driver for New Zealand’s tourism industry,” he says.
China connectivity was also “another bright spot” for the airport with the return of Sichuan Airlines in April 2024 and according to Strange, six airlines now connect Auckland Airport to seven destinations in China, with seat capacity up from 2019 levels by 2% in the 2024 year.
In the airport’s 2024 June-year, revenue almost doubled from the 2023 financial year, climbing 43% to $895.5 million.
Net underlying profit after tax soared up 87% to $276.6 million, however, actual net profit after tax fell 87% to $5.5 million.
The board still announced a final dividend of 6.5 cents per share, which will be paid on October 4.
The airport’s annual report says that with the inclusion of the interim dividend, the total dividend distribution in the year of 13.25 cents equated to a 71% payout of underlying profit for the 2024 financial year.
Careful approach
Despite the boost in airline seat capacity during the 2024 financial year, Chief Executive Carrie Hurihanganui says Auckland Airport was taking a “careful approach” to managing costs in the current economic environment.
“Auckland Airport relies on customers coming and going through our doors so in this environment, where people are being more careful with household spending, we are taking a prudent and careful approach to spending,” she says.
This cost control extends to the airport’s infrastructure programme and Hurihanganui says the airport had made “positive progress” in this area.
In 2023, the airport announced a new domestic terminal was going to cost $2.2 billion and other related infrastructure upgrades like connecting the domestic and international terminals would cost an additional $1.7 billion.
Hurihanganui says visible changes across the airport precinct during the 2024 June-year ranged from airfield expansion, road network upgrades, the first stage of the airport’s Transport Hub opening and the closure of the inner terminal road and “real progress” on the new domestic jet terminal.
“Alongside the main terminal construction, work is underway on an airfield expansion the size of 23 rugby fields and associated stormwater upgrade; an overhaul of the commercial transport lanes directly in front of the international terminal in what was previously the public drop-off and pick-up area; and work towards the first stages of an upgrade to the check-in area to switch out the traditional check-in desks with self-service kiosks and bag drops,” she says.
However she warns that any construction undertaken in and around operational environments is complex.
“There will be pain points in that journey and some disruption, including temporary changes we need to make to create safe worksites, but we will always work quickly to support and respond to the needs of our customers,” she says.
Holding back
Looking forward, Strange says a global backlog of replacement aircraft orders has seen airlines holding back on a full return to long-haul destinations and prioritising available fleet on high-yield routes.
“With these headwinds, we are anticipating a longer timeframe for achieving a full capacity recovery to pre-2019 levels,” he says.
According to Strange, there’s also less capacity and competition on routes and airfares are remaining “stubbornly high” especially across the Tasman.
“When you couple the higher cost of flying with increased competition from other tourism destinations and the economic climate globally, we’ve seen flow-on impacts for key inbound visitor markets. This is especially true for Australia, with fewer Australians choosing New Zealand as their destination,” he says.
Hurihanganui says NZ remains an attractive market for international airlines but “uncertainty remains” around external factors that are constraining the global supply of aircraft and engines.
“Air New Zealand's aircraft engine issues will also have an ongoing impact and we continue to face headwinds in the local economy,” she says.
This means the airport is remaining “cautious” about the outlook of its 2025 financial year at this stage and has provided an underlying earnings guidance of between $280 million and $320 million.
This airport is anticipating domestic and international passenger numbers of about 8.6 million and 10.5 million respectively.
It also provided a capital expenditure guidance of between $1 billion and $1.3 billion in the 2025 June-year which takes in the investment across the airport precinct.
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