Fewer passengers through Wellington Airport

Passenger numbers through Wellington Airport continued to slip in January, following December's decline, infrastructure investor Infratil says in its latest investor update.

Infratil, which owns a 66 per cent stake in the airport, said domestic traffic fell 4.25 per cent overall in January on a 2 per cent reduction in seats. International passengers in January fell 12.6 per cent on a 12 per cent reduction in seats.

The effect was exaggerated by adverse weather and service interruptions on three days, Infratil said.

The result for domestic passengers at Wellington was in line with similar flat or adverse trends at other major New Zealand airports.

But it was contrary to Wellington's underlying circumstances, with strong income and employment levels, and a good underlying corporate/government market.

Perversely, some of the softening in travel growth coincided with a period when Wellington recorded the country's highest growth in economic activity.

Also inbound visitation growth had been stronger and more consistent in Wellington than almost any other region in New Zealand, as measured by guest nights.

Despite the recent disappointing results, international passenger levels remained well above those two years ago, just before the New Zealand aviation market entered a more competitive phase. January 2006 was 20 per cent up on January 2004.

On international routes, passengers followed seat capacity -- routes grew where seats were added and fell where seats were withdrawn, Infratil said.

Sydney remained the disappointment, with January down 25 per cent on the same month last year. All carriers showed lower capacity to Sydney this January.

South East Queensland routes, where competition and capacity growth had emerged, were again the good news story, up 19 per cent on last year.

Australian visitation to New Zealand was down 1.8 per cent in December and Auckland and Christchurch both experienced falls in Australian arrivals, albeit at lower figures than Wellington.

Nationally New Zealanders going to Australia were up 2.7 per cent in December, which was reflected at both Auckland and Christchurch, but at Wellington New Zealand resident departures to Australia were down in December.

That was likely to be a result of a lower level of schedule flexibility and capacity offered at Wellington, particularly to Sydney, as well as less competitive fares compared to last year and compared to other cities.

As the market consolidated, Wellington was experiencing weakness in travellers who were more price and capacity sensitive -- holiday arrivals and those visiting friends and relatives.

Wellington could expect to return to a more positive trend if the airline industry showed a sustainable level of competition in the next year or two, a trend that could be seen at other ports in Australasia.

At Infratil-owned Glasgow Prestwick Airport, passenger numbers for January were up 3 per cent on a year earlier, year-to-date passenger numbers were 11 per cent up at just over 2 million.

Kent International Airport, also owned by the company, had valuable exposure when reporters gathered there this month for the scheduled arrival of adventurer Steve Fossett after the longest nonstop flight in aviation history.

Although Fossett was forced to land at another airport, he quickly transferred to Kent International in a private aircraft to meet the press and receive confirmation of the record.

- NZPA