Latest / Best of Business / Billie Moore: NZ Airport Association Chief Executive says Airports Association is not to blame for increase in fare prices

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Billie Moore: NZ Airport Association Chief Executive says Airports Association is not to blame for increase in fare prices · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: If you feel like we're paying the highest price for
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  Speaker 2: domestic airfares, you're wre not wrong. The Airport Council International
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  Speaker 2: says domestic airfares have increased sixty three percent in this
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  Speaker 2: country since twenty nineteen. That's one of the biggest jumps
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  Speaker 2: in the world. The report sees it's mostly down to inflation,
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  Speaker 2: not airport fees. Billy Moore is he's the only Airport's
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  Speaker 2: Association Chief executive Billy good morning, Good morning. This report
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  Speaker 2: is from and it's an airports group, isn't it? So
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  Speaker 2: they would say this, wouldn't they.
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  Speaker 3: Look, yeah, you're right, there's a global airports group. But
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  Speaker 3: the methodology is robust. It draws on the same global
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  Speaker 3: data sets used by both airports and airlines around the world,
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  Speaker 3: so the data is sound.
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  Speaker 2: In New Zealand says, look, our costs have gone up.
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  Speaker 2: That's the reason that the fears are going up. You know,
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  Speaker 2: their costs are up forty percent of twenty nineteen. Their
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  Speaker 2: prices are up thirty five percent.
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  Speaker 3: Look. Criticizing airport charges has long been a business strategy
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  Speaker 3: for large airlines at every point in the cycle. But
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  Speaker 3: airport charges are not the reason. It costs one thy
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  Speaker 3: fifteen hundred dollars to fly to a regional center on average,
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  Speaker 3: and airport charge is about five seven percent of a
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  Speaker 3: total airline operating costs. What this report is showing us
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  Speaker 3: is that the New Zealand's flight cost increases are the
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  Speaker 3: highest in the region at sixty three percent. It is
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  Speaker 3: time to look more closely at why that is. The
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  Speaker 3: key driver that we see is around capacity reduction. So
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  Speaker 3: as airlines reduce their capacity, they're spreading those cost increases
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  Speaker 3: that they're citing over a smaller number of passengers. That's
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  Speaker 3: why flights are so full, that's why air views are
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  Speaker 3: so high. And we really need to see that stat
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  Speaker 3: tune around.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, they've got engine issues, this is what they
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  Speaker 2: would argue anyway. Is this just more of the it's
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  Speaker 2: the airports versus the New Zealand. You know, this is
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  Speaker 2: the long running saga continues.
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  Speaker 3: Oh look, you know, as I see, it's long been
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  Speaker 3: the strategy for them to target airports is the problem.
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  Speaker 3: I think this figure that's not okay.
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  Speaker 2: But your things are going up on they walking the
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  Speaker 2: airport one hundred and forty four million dollars this year,
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  Speaker 2: it'll be four hundred and seventy six million dollars by
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  Speaker 2: twenty thirty two that they've got to pay.
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  Speaker 3: It's not there is a number that the airlines have
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  Speaker 3: come up with they're also going to be making.
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  Speaker 2: Is it wrong?
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  Speaker 3: Billion dollars from that amount?
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  Speaker 2: It's the number wrong, it is. The number wrong. Is
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  Speaker 2: how much will they be paying in twenty thirty two
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  Speaker 2: if not four hundred and seventy six million.
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  Speaker 3: The reason why that's not a number that's actually out
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  Speaker 3: there is because the airports has to console with the
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  Speaker 3: lines before they make any decisions around those cost to
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  Speaker 3: twenty thirty two. So it is a lobbying exercise from
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  Speaker 3: the airlines to come up with that number.
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  Speaker 2: All right, So the numbers wrong, numbers wrong. Billy, appreciate
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  Speaker 2: your time this morning. That's Billy Moore, New Zealand, the
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  Speaker 2: Airports Association Chief Executive.
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