Auckland Airport throws 2nd submission into ring

By CHRIS DANIELS

As Government ministers prepare to decide on the future of Whenuapai airbase, Auckland International Airport has again weighed into the debate, this time with an unsolicited "supplementary submission" on the issue.

More than 2200 submissions on the future of the military airfield have been made to the Defence Force, 75 per cent opposing the idea of a commercial airport.

Now Auckland International Airport has matched its rivals at Infratil and the Waitakere City Council by seeking a second bite of the cherry and sending a rebuttal to the Defence Force.

A research report issued this week by sharebrokers ABN Amro says the Auckland International Airport share price was "unlikely to outperform" in the near term, while the Whenuapai issue remained outstanding.

ABN Amro did not believe any new Whenuapai airport would significantly affect cashflows at Auckland airport, particularly if it meant a delay in the need to build a second runway.

Continued media coverage of the Whenuapai debate would, however, "adversely affect market sentiment" around the airport shares, said ABN Amro.

Auckland International Airport stressed the "opportunistic" nature of the Infratil/Waitakere bid for a commercial airport at Whenuapai, while also saying the commercial case for a second airport was "seriously flawed" and amounted to a request for a "privileged position using public assets for private gain without paying for the value of the asset".

It said it did not mind competition, but it must be on fair terms. It had calculated that it would lose 4 per cent of its traffic to Whenuapai by 2020.

An announcement this week of $150 million of expansion work at Auckland International Airport was also cited as further proof that another commercial airport at Whenuapai was not needed.

It said any new airport such as that planned by Infratil and Waitakere would "effectively be receiving a subsidy at the expense of New Zealand taxpayers".

"The Waitakere-Infratil proposal does not amount to a firm commitment to develop a commercial airport at Whenuapai. It amounts to the seeking of an exclusive right to develop a commercial airport at Whenuapai on a trial basis using the Crown's asset, by preserving the right to walk away if the venture does not succeed commercially."

Infratil, which owns two-thirds of Wellington Airport and will soon move to 100 per cent ownership of Glasgow Prestwick Airport in Scotland, says it will pay up to $50 million of its own money getting Whenuapai up to scratch. It says it would not need all of the 311ha site for the airport, leaving some land available for sale or other development.

In its second submission to the Defence Force, it said parts of Auckland Airport's contribution contained "errors of a scale of magnitude and are clearly mischievous in intention".