Airports additions pass with flying colours

Auckland Airport's new $75 million terminal departure deck and baggage screening system appear to be passing the test of the summer tourist surge.

Safety authorities required the airport to separate outgoing passengers from arrivals and have all bags screened before going into aircraft holds from January 1 - the start of the airport's most hectic time of the year.

Airport chief executive Don Huse said the pier separation and hold-stow baggage screening had gone well - which was a challenge for the variety of organisations at the airport.

While actual passenger numbers have yet to be issued, Huse said it was proving to be "another great busy season" with high aircraft load factors, but growth would not be as high as in recent summers.

"It's busy out there as it is every year but, if you look at the traffic trends, there's still obviously growth out there - but not at the same high levels that we saw last year," he said.

Developments this summer included the installation of 10 kiosks where passengers can pay their departure charge without queuing up at a bank counter. The kiosks accept credit and debit cards, but not cash.

Two new duty free kiosks have also been opened in the baggage hall, where arriving passengers can buy duty free goods while waiting for their bags.

As wifi communications are part of the $28 million baggage-screening process, it means wireless internet access is available to passengers in cafes and bars. These "hot-spots" will be progressively introduced starting next week and will eventually include the domestic terminal.

The airport was operating under a waiver from the Civil Aviation Authority, allowing it to keep running without passenger separation, but this became untenable in the post-September 11 world - as did the practice of not screening all baggage.

Qantas chairwoman Margaret Jackson took a swipe at the airport in 2004, saying the lack of passenger separation meant it was a weak link in terms of global terrorism.

Now the project has finished, incoming passengers arrive, get off their plane and walk through the pier in the glass corridor.

Outgoing passengers "drop down" on to the ground level through escalators and lifts, where they wait in secure gate lounges before being called to board their aircraft.

The 600 sq m of new retail space in the pier are important for a company that earns more from what it calls "non-aeronautical" activities such as shops and carparks than it does from aircraft operations.

Last year's financial results showed $84.7 million or 30 per cent of annual company revenue coming from its retail operations.

Often seen as one of the NZX's blue-chip investments, Auckland International Airport shares have ranged between $1.79 and $2.41 over the past 12 months. After a price fall in October and November, airport shares have been rising since December, closing yesterday unchanged at $2.08.

Forsyth Barr research head Rob Mercer said analysts were expecting to see some short-term softening of visitor arrival numbers, with a similar drop in profit growth.

The high dollar and the tailing-off of huge growth in the transtasman market were behind this decline.

There were positive signs for the company over the medium to long term though, as the biggest airlines using the airport - Air NZ and Qantas - embarked on fleet development, with newer, bigger aircraft.

Mercer said the airport's share price was not cheap, but considered "fair value". The company was also in the process of negotiating new landing charges with the airlines, which were due to come into force in 2007.

He said most analysts were factoring in a landing charge price hike of at least 15 per cent - a rise that would be fought fiercely by the airlines.