Wellington International Airport Limited Analysis

Overview

Wellington International Airport Limited is one of New Zealand's three main airports, which caters for approximately 5 million passengers per year and 100,000 aircraft. In 1998 the Crown sold its shareholding, 66% to listed infrastructure company Infratil Limited and 34% to Wellington City Council, a specialist investor in infrastructure and utility assets.

Infratil is listed on the NZX and owns airports in New Zealand and Europe, as well as electricity; waste to energy; and port investments in New Zealand and Australia. Since Infratil became a shareholder the Airport Company has invested over $250 million in its facilities.

On 2 December 2008, Wellington International Airport was listed on the NZDX following an initial offering for $50 million fixed rate bonds with the ability to accept over subscriptions of up to $50 million. As at 22 December 2008, $50 million unsecured unsubordinated five year, fixed rate bonds were fully subscribed. The top three bondholders include FNZ Custodians (11.71%), TSB Bank (9.2%) and Westpac Institutional Bank (5.52%).

WIA derives its revenue through three different streams: passenger revenue, property revenue and aeronautical revenue. The investment statement indicates an upward graph trend in increasing revenue over the past 11 years from between $6-7m in 1997 to around $30m in 2008 in passenger and property revenue alone.

Performance

The following information was extracted from Wellington International Airport Limited's full year results, released on 14 May 2024:

Wellington Airport has today announced its financial results for the 12 months to 31 March 2024, with passenger numbers recovering well and strong earnings ahead of both last year and pre-pandemic levels.

For the year ended 31 March 2024 the airport hosted 5.5 million passengers, an increase of almost 200,000 from the previous year and reaching 89% of pre-Covid levels (financial year ended 31 March 2020). Growth was particularly strong for international travel with a 31% increase in passengers from last year.

The after-tax result is a net loss of $28.8 million, impacted by the Government’s removal of tax depreciation on commercial buildings. This tax change has had a one-off impact on Wellington Airport alongside many other New Zealand businesses.

Wellington Airport chief executive Matt Clarke comments:

“We’ve seen strong revenue uplift across all parts of the business, resulting in an EBITDAF of $107.1 million.1 This is a very positive result, up from last year’s $89.6 million and pre-Covid $103.9 million.

“This aligns with the global rebound in travel volumes and places Covid-19 firmly in the rearview mirror.

“Over the last year we’ve invested $67.7 million in infrastructure, working closely with our airline partners to lay the groundwork for future growth to meet the needs of Wellington and the wider region.”