Hamilton International Airport Reports Tax Surplus

Monday,October 20, 2008.

News Release

Hamilton International Airport Reports
$3.89 Million After Tax Surplus.

Hamilton International Airport today reported an after-tax surplus of $3.8 million for its latest financial year.

The surplus to June 30, 2008, is up from last year’s $2.7 million and achieved from operating revenues of $7.13 million, compared to $5.96 million previously.

Chairman of airport owner Waikato Regional Airport Limited, Jerry Rickman, said total assets had reached $85.2 million, including current year revaluations of $21.85 million.

Reporting to the annual meeting, Mr Rickman said the company had reduced debt during the year from $21.2 million to $17.9 million from the proceeds of non-strategic land sales.

Revenue had increased over all key revenue lines with the exception of concession income from the duty free store.

Mr Rickman said landing charges were up 33 percent to $1.7 million, car park revenue up 2.9 percent to $1.5 million, with rental income up almost 36 percent to $1.3 million.

Departure fees were up 13 percent to $1.56 million.

The airport achieved record aircraft movements for the year at 148,000, up 24 percent on 2007.

Since 2003 aircraft movements had increased 164 percent, and in the last two years by 69 percent.

Aircraft movements from the CTC Aviation Training Facility had contributed significantly to the increase and are predicted to rise further in the coming year.

However, continued growth in domestic passengers had been offset by a reduction in international passengers.

Company chief executive, Chris Doak, said these changes had been driven by Air New Zealand increasing domestic flights while reducing its international schedule.

Domestic passenger numbers grew 4.6 percent, while the loss of international flights to both Melbourne and Fiji resulted in a 15.8 percent reduction from 104,000 to 87,000.

Air New Zealand had taken over Freedom Air’s international operations in March with the introduction of full service trans-Tasman flights.

International passengers numbers for the Sydney, the Gold Coast and Brisbane routes were down 4 percent for the year.

ENDS

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