Auckland International Airport has left its full-year earnings guidance unchanged due to the ongoing uncertainty surrounding international travel.
Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
The country's biggest airport expects to report an after-tax loss of between $35 million and $55m for the year ended June.
Auckland International Airport outgoing chief executive Adrian Littlewood said the recovery of international travel would depend on the success of the vaccine rollout globally.
"As a result, international passenger numbers and those business lines linked to passenger volumes, including retail and transport, may remain very subdued for the remainder of the calendar year.
"However, we do expect steady recovery from early in calendar year 2022," he said.
This was based on the company's view that the vaccine rollout would be ramped up in the coming months to be completed by Christmas.
"We're expecting to see that flow through to a rebound in trans-Tasman traffic and the gradual return of long haul travellers," Littlewood said.
The airport expected its retail income for the next financial year to be between $25m and $35m.
However, it said the opening of a travel bubble with Australia had seen it scale up operations at the international terminal and begin maintenance.
As a result, it forecast operating costs for FY22 to be between $160m and $175m.
The company said it had repaid $425m in debt it had borrowed from large US investors ahead of time, which would save it about $10m in interest expenses in the next financial year.
Littlewood said the airport was providing support to its retailers who had been affected by the closure of the trans-Tasman travel bubble.