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Katie Woolf spoke with NT Airports CEO Tony Edmondstone · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Earlier in the week, the Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack
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  Speaker 1: announced that the October six federal budget will include a
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  Speaker 1: three month extension for the government's domestic aviation and regional
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  Speaker 1: aviation support programs. Now, joining me in the studio to
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  Speaker 1: talk more about this is the CEO of NT Airports,
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  Speaker 1: Tony Edmonstone.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, morning, Katie. How are you?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, really well, thank you so much for joining us
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  Speaker 1: this morning. Now, firstly, what do these support programs really
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  Speaker 1: mean for the Northern Territories airline industry.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so while back sort of the federal government denounced
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  Speaker 3: what's referred to as sort of the regional Airport Support
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  Speaker 3: program and the domestic regional to a large extent, he
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  Speaker 3: sort of intra territory yep, domestic is to a large
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  Speaker 3: extent interstate. Now, what these have enabled is obviously planes
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  Speaker 3: to stay in the air and importantly they're really designed
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  Speaker 3: around how we move freight in and around the territory
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  Speaker 3: and how we move freight in and around Australia. So
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  Speaker 3: what you've got is the Fed government effectively paying for
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  Speaker 3: these flights to get underbally freight, particularly for medical associated
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  Speaker 3: with COVID and now now the announcement means that'll continue
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  Speaker 3: through to January one.
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  Speaker 1: How important is that is being able to do that
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  Speaker 1: with the fright at this point in time, given the
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  Speaker 1: fact that those passenger numbers I'm assuming are quite low.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, I'll give you sort of one example or a couple,
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  Speaker 3: you know, for the last sort of three months. We
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  Speaker 3: know what's happened in sort of Victoria in New South Wales. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: those flights have continued to run, but very very low
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  Speaker 3: occupancy sort of stuff within it. Because the Fed government
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  Speaker 3: have paid for them, those flights continue to run. And importantly,
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  Speaker 3: that's our source of medical supplies. So those flights weren't running,
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  Speaker 3: you know, our medical supplies and other things just wouldn't
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  Speaker 3: be up here.
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  Speaker 1: But it doesn't make a real big difference by the
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  Speaker 1: sounds of things when it comes to passenger numbers, does
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  Speaker 1: it not.
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  Speaker 2: A huge amount?
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  Speaker 3: You know, this extension says it's going to keep going
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  Speaker 3: for a few more months, which means we'll get those
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  Speaker 3: flights continuing to run.
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  Speaker 2: You know.
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  Speaker 3: Aim what it does is it buys us time until
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  Speaker 3: the borders open, and when the borders open, that's when
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  Speaker 3: we expect the flights to sort of start to fill up.
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  Speaker 1: Now, let's talk about those passenger numbers. How are things
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  Speaker 1: tracking along right now?
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  Speaker 3: I took you know, we run three airports, tenant Alis,
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  Speaker 3: Springs and Darwin, and if I talk of passenger numbers
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  Speaker 3: on a consolidator basis, during that sort of April May period,
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  Speaker 3: we sort of dropped to about seventeen thousand passengers a month.
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  Speaker 3: Sort of that's in in and out.
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  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 3: Typically at that time of year we're doing sort of
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  Speaker 3: two hundred and fifty to three hundred thousand. See, sort
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  Speaker 3: of down ninety five percent, and this sort of affects
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  Speaker 3: all of tourism importantly. If I sort of do sort
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  Speaker 3: of three months sort of July, you know, June, July, August,
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  Speaker 3: it's gone sort of twenty in June, forty thousand in July,
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  Speaker 3: sixty thousand in August. Right, So what we're seeing it's
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  Speaker 3: a slow build, right, and that slow build will still continue.
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  Speaker 3: We expect to sort of get to sort of eighty
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  Speaker 3: or ninety during the month of September, and it's importantly
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  Speaker 3: when Sydney opens on the ninth of October, and then
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  Speaker 3: hopefully Melbourne sometime in December, and hopefully Western Australia sometime
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  Speaker 3: in December that we'll get back to really strong tourist season.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, I think that's what everybody's sort of
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  Speaker 1: looking to next, is when those borders open, like you
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  Speaker 1: touched on a little bit later this month or in
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  Speaker 1: a few days, I guess you'd say we will see
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  Speaker 1: the borders open again to Sydney. Have we got many
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  Speaker 1: flights booked in and ready to arrive for those dates?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so quantus of announced daily flights from Sydney. Jetstar
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  Speaker 3: have announced daily flights from Sydney, all but some of
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  Speaker 3: the ford bookings on Jetstar looking a bit softy. So
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  Speaker 3: to start, you know, it's a double daily type program.
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  Speaker 3: We expect, you know a lot of Sydney siders will
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  Speaker 3: take the opportunity to come and explore the territory, which.
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  Speaker 1: Is wonderful and I think it'll be great to see
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  Speaker 1: those Sydney siders come to the Northern territory. But I
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  Speaker 1: suppose what we're all waiting for and we need to
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  Speaker 1: make sure that we're doing it when it's safe. But
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  Speaker 1: what we are all waiting for is that that border surety,
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  Speaker 1: I guess you'd say, where all of Australia's borders reopen
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  Speaker 1: and Aussie's can fly around and travel around freely again.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, I think that the sooner you know, Victoria
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  Speaker 3: and the trends are really good down there, So the
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  Speaker 3: sooner Victoria starts to reopen to the rest of Australia,
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  Speaker 3: that'll make a huge difference. And then obviously we've got
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  Speaker 3: Western Australia, you know that'll opening again. You know, if
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  Speaker 3: I look forward to the next dry season and you know,
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  Speaker 3: there's enough signals out there, I'm actually very very bullish
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  Speaker 3: around where I suspect the next dry will be. International
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  Speaker 3: borders in my opinion will stay closed, you know, for
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  Speaker 3: some time, maybe to the end of next year. And
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  Speaker 3: you know, Ossie tourists are going to come and enjoy
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  Speaker 3: the territory. So I think we're in for really solid
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  Speaker 3: dry next year.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. And now look, talking about those flights that are
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  Speaker 1: arriving from the likes of Sydney, I know that their
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  Speaker 1: COVID numbers are now really quite low. But are there
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  Speaker 1: extra measures in place and how important is it for
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  Speaker 1: NTY airports really to have those safety protocols in place
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  Speaker 1: when those arrivals do get here.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and about sort of the passenger numbers that are
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  Speaker 3: coming through. Now we're using our international terminals as screening points.
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  Speaker 3: So we are fortunate that we've got sort of a
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  Speaker 3: reasonably large international terminal that's not open. Yeah, you know,
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  Speaker 3: we think we can cope pretty well when Sydney comes back,
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  Speaker 3: and to a large extent, we think we can cope
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  Speaker 3: pretty well when Melbourne comes back. And maintaining sort of
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  Speaker 3: social distancing, screening of passengers, all those all those things
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  Speaker 3: that you need to do. We are turning our attention
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  Speaker 3: to you know, we know there's a large student population
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  Speaker 3: that eventually has to make its way into Australia as
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  Speaker 3: well as sort of repat Aussies. Yeah, we don't know
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  Speaker 3: whether dare when or play a role in that or not,
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  Speaker 3: but we are turning some attention to, hey, you know,
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  Speaker 3: when all of this happens, how do we get our
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  Speaker 3: logistics right and maintain you know, the safety for our passengers.
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  Speaker 1: And are you guys ready if the if the federal
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  Speaker 1: government and the territory government did announce that there will
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  Speaker 1: be the repatriation of Aussies from the likes of Singapore,
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  Speaker 1: or if there's students arriving from from overseas, you're obviously
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  Speaker 1: ready and prepared for that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so we've sort of looked and said we think,
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  Speaker 3: you know, two to three flights a week is around
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  Speaker 3: about a comfortable number for us. That sort of says
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  Speaker 3: to you know, five hundred to seven hundred sort of
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  Speaker 3: passengers routing through a gain from a territory perspective, you know,
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  Speaker 3: we work closely with Health on quarantining and how that works,
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  Speaker 3: with how it springs and how we can maintain it.
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  Speaker 3: We're very, very comfortable at those sort of numbers. You know,
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  Speaker 3: obviously the bigger airports through the rest of Australia take
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  Speaker 3: you know, exponentially more people than.
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  Speaker 1: That, Tony, How has it been four anti airports over
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  Speaker 1: recent months given the fact that you know, the industry
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  Speaker 1: is largely based obviously on on aviation and those flights
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  Speaker 1: coming and going, and really, you know, it had come
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  Speaker 1: to a standstill at one point there has it been?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: Look, look, you know, I think at the worst was
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  Speaker 3: sort of April May of this year. We were down
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  Speaker 3: sort of ninety eight percent, you know in passenger movements
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  Speaker 3: through the airport and we get sort of paid on
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  Speaker 3: passenger movements, not aircraft landings. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, couple that, we know the rest of the territory
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  Speaker 2: was doing.
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  Speaker 3: It really tough as well at that time, and a
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  Speaker 3: lot of our airport tenants were looking for a range
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  Speaker 3: of relief which we passed on to them. You know,
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  Speaker 3: our position was very clearly, you know, we're not going
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  Speaker 3: to stand any of our staff down, and we didn't.
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  Speaker 3: Everyone took a little bit of sort of reduced hours
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  Speaker 3: through that process. We passed on all the benefits we
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  Speaker 3: could to all of our custom as much as we could.
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  Speaker 3: You know, we're here for the long haul. You know,
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  Speaker 3: we've been in the territory for twenty or thirty years
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  Speaker 3: since privatization of the airports, and weeks to be here
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  Speaker 3: for another thirty, so you know, we've taken a really
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  Speaker 3: long term view.
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  Speaker 1: Have the changes to job Keeper made much of a
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  Speaker 1: difference for you guys.
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  Speaker 2: It's a small difference.
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  Speaker 3: But again, if you think about the test of job Keeper,
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  Speaker 3: you've got to be down thirty percent.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we're down ninety. You know we'll continue to
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  Speaker 2: be eligible.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, obviously the NT airports as well. Everybody thinks
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  Speaker 1: about aviation and flights coming in and out when you
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  Speaker 1: talk about NT airports, but the reality is, you guys
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  Speaker 1: have diversified. You've got other other elements to the business.
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  Speaker 1: How I guess how important is that diversification.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, they look at property portfolio and you know today
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  Speaker 3: we've probably got a two hundred and fifty million dollar
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  Speaker 3: property portfolio that was really important through the downcycle. It
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  Speaker 3: enables us, you know, although you know, the rentals were
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  Speaker 3: much reduced, it enables us that little bit of cash
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  Speaker 3: to continue to pay people, to can continue to keeper
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  Speaker 3: people employed.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Tony, you took on this role as the CEO
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  Speaker 1: sort of right at start of this pandemic. How tough
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  Speaker 1: has it been for you the last few months and
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  Speaker 1: what's it been like for you stepping into the role
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  Speaker 1: and coming in at such a difficult time.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, challenges, challenges are thrown up in every cycle
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  Speaker 3: of business, so you know, this is not unusual. You know,
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  Speaker 3: our very first step was to ensure for all of
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  Speaker 3: our staff and all of our contractors and all of
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  Speaker 3: our community partners that we weren't walking away, you know,
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  Speaker 3: and you know, we're pretty proud of the fact that
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  Speaker 3: we didn't stand anyone down. We kept our contracts going.
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  Speaker 3: We continue to onner our customers. You know, the territory
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  Speaker 3: is a small place and we've got to sort of
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  Speaker 3: look after each other through that cycle.
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  Speaker 1: Now, you spoke earlier about the number of passengers that
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  Speaker 1: are coming through and the fact that you are feeling
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  Speaker 1: quite buoyed about those passenger numbers picking up. I know
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  Speaker 1: that the territory governments announced a number of different tourism
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  Speaker 1: initiatives to try to get more people here today. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: the NT summer campaign kicks off where they've got a
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  Speaker 1: bit of you know, if people book a flight or
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  Speaker 1: book an experience I guess in the Northern Territory from interstate,
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  Speaker 1: they'll get a bit of a discount. Do things like
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  Speaker 1: that help in terms of getting those passenger numbers up
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  Speaker 1: and getting more people in through the airport.
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  Speaker 3: Look, I think if you're sitting in South Australia today,
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  Speaker 3: or you're sitting in Queensland today, you're pretty comfortable that
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  Speaker 3: the borders to the territory are going to stay open.
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  Speaker 3: So if you're going to book ahead and spend a
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  Speaker 3: few thousand dollars on flights and accommodation and other experiences
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  Speaker 3: of the territory, you're pretty comfortable that they'll stay open
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  Speaker 3: and you'll.
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  Speaker 2: Get to do it well.
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  Speaker 1: Tony yeah, sorry.
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  Speaker 3: Look, as you know that the critical one for me
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  Speaker 3: is as the border is open with Sydney and Melbourne,
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  Speaker 3: that they stay open. And that's the nervousness out there.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's been the tough thing, isn't it. You know,
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  Speaker 1: so many people I suppose they maybe want to book
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  Speaker 1: a flight or they want to come to the territory,
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  Speaker 1: but then they are a little bit worried about that
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  Speaker 1: uncertainty and whether they will definitely be able to do
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  Speaker 1: it or.
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  Speaker 3: Not correct and the more whether it's the domestic tourism
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  Speaker 3: voucher that sort of played out with the intra territory stuff,
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  Speaker 3: you know, the most recent announcement to support into state travel.
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  Speaker 3: You know, they all help and the more people we
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  Speaker 3: can bring here the better, you know importantly.
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  Speaker 2: You know, if we can.
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  Speaker 3: Get a half decent wet season of tourism coming through,
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  Speaker 3: people get to go home, they talk to their friends,
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  Speaker 3: they talk to the relatives. Come the dry season next year,
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  Speaker 3: you know we'll get more again.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, let's hope so well.
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  Speaker 1: Nenti Airport CEO Tony Edmonston really appreciate your time this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks so much for coming in. Thanks Caddy,