Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Shane O'Hare: Queenstown Airport CEO on reporting a $34 million profit for the year to June

Transcript

Shane O'Hare: Queenstown Airport CEO on reporting a $34 million profit for the year to June · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And let's go to Queenstown where business is booming at
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: the airport. Nearly three million passengers this financial year, thirty
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: four million dollar profit for the year to June, which
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: means they can now to shout about twenty million dollars
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: in dividends, including fifteen million to the council. That's about
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: four hundred and seventy bucks per Queenstown resident. Shane O.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Here is Queenstown Airport CEO of me this morning, Shane, Good.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Morning, Good morning, Ran. Good to be with you.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Good to be with you too. This is just proof
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: that Queenstown's been doing what we've been saying it's been doing,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: which is pretty well right.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, Queenstown is it's the international duel of the
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Crown from a tourism perspective, and that's clearly, as you
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: just mentioned, reflected in the results that are coming through
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: this year, and it looks like that growth is continuing.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Where are the travelers coming from? Is it mainly international?
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Now? Yeah, the split is twenty percent of our which
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: is it's a big split of international, twenty percent trans
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: tasmin mostly V plus on bound inbound passengers coming into
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Australia and onwards twenty per centers domestic, and then the
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: sorry forty percent domestic, and then the other twenty percenters
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: are just local travel. So it's a big, big proportion
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: as international.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: One of the problems you get on the plane, say
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: you're coming from Auckland and then you spend probably about
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: the same amount of time that you did in the
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: year trying to get into Queenstown at a car. What
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: do you guys think about the congestion and what do
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: you think about the gondola.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Look any any destination that's growing as quickly as Queenstown
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: is going to have growth pains, and there is like
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: a gold Coast, A lot of places off shore have
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: a lot of these similar issues. It's very important that
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: the community works exceptionally well together with the local council.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: We have some very very solid tour operators here. You've
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: got Skyline or your skins Fields, aj Hackett's, your Reli
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: in Z's and of course the gateway to Milford, so
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: it's really important we work together. There are some traffic
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: and infrastructure issues. We're also working with central government and
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: airport taking a lead to make sure that we are
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: fit for growth. And of course the airport is investing
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: significantly in infrastructure as we move forward. The gondola is
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: the real project and we're working very closely with Ross
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Copeland and sal on that project. And there are other
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: solutions being put forward at the moment, including another alternative
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: that could be working concurrently with the gondola called wash
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: and there are other options as well. So it's a conundrum.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: It's difficult, but we're working very closely to make sure
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: that we keep this as one of the leading tourism
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: destinations on the planet. What's wash so washes a uber
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: like gondola if you like. It's an on call gondola.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: It has multiple stopover points, so unlike the gondola, which
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: is like a one way rail network if you like,
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: from the airport all the way through to town, Bush
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: has multiple stopover options so that you can call it
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: up and then it stops at multiple places and you
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: can actually book it for your own for your own
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: news as such. So it's quite new technology. As a
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: company in christ Church working on that and we're working
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: with those investors to see what can be done to
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: bring it to life and.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Would that sit on a separate track from the other
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: gondola proposal.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: It is Yeah, it's a completely separate setup and so
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: that would potentially have a complementary network to the gondola service.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Sa Here Queenstanny. We'll see you for more from Early
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Listen live to News Talks it be from five am weekdays,
• 4:07
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