The country's biggest airport has reported a drop in profit, as it adjusts to the sale of its North Queensland Airports last year, as well as smaller gains in the value of its properties.
Auckland Airport Photo: 123RF
Auckland International Airport's net profit was down 19.5 percent to $523.5 million in the year to June.
The underlying profit was otherwise up 4.4 percent to $274.7m, when the sale of the airports and revaluations were excluded.
Auckland Airport's property portfolios had an estimated value of $1.7 billion and committed rents of $100m as at June.
Highlights for the year included work on two of its eight key anchor infrastructure projects, including the airfield expansion at Auckland Airport and a major upgrade of the inner core of its roading network, in addition to the redevelopment of the departure area at the international terminal and other transport projects.
Chief executive Adrian Littlewood said Auckland Airport was focused on developing long-term core aeronautical and non-aeronautical infrastructure projects, with 200 project planned or under way.
"The additional time we have invested in these valuable formative stages has led to lower capital expenditure than planned for the 2019 period, reaching $284.1m against the previous guidance of $280 million to $330 million," he said.
The airport had consistently argued higher charges were needed to fund the multibillion-dollar spending programme on terminals, runways and other facilities.
Revenue rose 8.7 percent to $743.4m, as 21.1 million people passed through the airport, with just over half being international passengers.
It forecast a full-year underlying profit of between $265m and $275m, the same as last year's forecast.
The final dividend was increased by 2.3 percent to 11.25 cents per share.