Long, slow climb into blue for airport chief

By DANIEL RIORDAN

As jumbo jets taxi outside his office window, John Goulter jokes that he may have created a New Zealand record for the longest retirement notice.

The managing director of Auckland International Airport signalled last month that he would step down in September next year, after what by then would be 15 years in the top job.

Goulter effectively made up his mind during what was for him an unusually long holiday last summer.

"Fifteen years is way beyond the norm for heading a large corporation," he says. "It's been a very demanding role, on call seven days a week, 24 hours a day. You're never a free agent in the sense you can just drop out, turn off the phone, your pager and everything and just remove yourself.

"Also, it's not in anyone's interest if you start to lose your edge - not that I believe I've lost my edge in any shape or form but you have to take a business decision and give the company every opportunity to choose a successor."

He says the timing couldn't be better.

"The company is in excellent shape. We've got permission to proceed with a second runway, the main runway is in its best state since it was built, the commercial property side of the business is going well, the retail situation has just been rebuilt and re-tendered for another five years, and visitor numbers have returned dramatically since September 11.

"We have a definite blueprint for the future, going out 30 to 40 years. It's the best time to pass it over and give whoever comes in the chance to get their head around it and take it further."

He says the Auckland City Council's review of its 25.7 per cent shareholding has nothing to do with his decision.

The plan is to have his successor in place by July for the start of a new financial year. Goulter, 60, will consult to the company for a further two years, although he has no desire to stay on as a director and have his successor looking over his or her shoulder at a man who for many personifies the airport.

He is adamant he won't be winding down.

"I've got a hell of a lot to get through. All the analysts have immediately assumed we'll be reporting a fifteenth successive year of profit increase, so I've kind of set myself up."

The company reports its results for the year to June 30 on Monday.

He has certainly set the airport up to be one of the true blue chip stocks since it listed just over four years ago.

Goulter has been running the show in his typical, upfront, robust style since 1988 when the airport was first corporatised.

He had been consulting for two years before that after 25 years at Ceramco.

Under his charge, the airport's net profit has risen from $3.7 million to $59 million, and this year's figure is expected to be about $70 million.

Revenue has grown from $65 million to $1.8 billion. The airport company's share price, $1.80 at listing, closed yesterday at $4.13, after peaking at $4.85 in May.

Actually, he's not "retiring".

"I don't like that word, because it suggests you've reached the end of the road.

"I look at myself as restructuring, in a positive sense. I'm off to do my own thing, become more of a free spirit and spend more time with family and friends.

"There are personal aspirations you never get to achieve in a large entity because it's a time-consuming, all-consuming business. So you've got to make a move before you're over the hill."

For Goulter, that means moving to the Bay of Islands to manage a B&B with his wife (he remarried last year), and keeping an eye on a Paihia motel they own.

Like a proud father, Goulter dishes out half a dozen glossy brochures for the Bay Sands Motel.

On a drizzly Auckland day the brochures' blue skies and sun-drenched sands look pretty tempting.

A rockhound mate he's known since primary school days runs the motel, and Goulter is looking forward to rolling up his sleeves and heading into the hills on a more regular basis than he has been able do over the past 15 years.

A self-professed history buff, he has been limited in his pursuit of natural history by the demands of his job.

"What's special about New Zealand is you can quickly get away from people, head up a stream or river to solitude and nature. But with my job, if that means going out of mobile phone range, I've got to turn back."

He'll keep an apartment in Auckland and continue as a Reserve Bank director.

The next major change at the airport will be the arrival some time in the next decade of the 650-seat Airbus 380s. Goulter predicts their impact on tourism will be as big as the arrival of the 400-passenger Boeing 747s in the early 1970s.

What does Goulter think of Qantas' plans to snuggle up to Air New Zealand?

He grimaces that the last time he commented publicly on the issue he "got beaten on the head from all quarters" - not that that stops him now.

"Our marketplace is only 4 million people, Australia's is only 20 million. Between us we're a small catchment by world aviation standards and I've always thought the two major airlines of the region working together makes more sense than working apart."

Seven or eight airlines already compete on trantasman routes . Goulter has little doubt that with one out of the equation, the rest will fill the void.

If domestic competition between Air NZ and Qantas ended, Goulter believes, travellers would not suffer unduly.

"You can't exploit pricing on the main trunk even if you're the only carrier. There are too many users who'll demand a readjustment if prices became crazy; they'll go to Wellington and lobby.

"The big leveller in New Zealand is there's only so much you can charge for that 50-minute flight to Wellington and that 1 hour 10 minutes to Christchurch."

He says it comes back to an adage he learned in his 1982 stint at Harvard Business School: the marketplace works in the long run. "I think people get too prissy about aviation."

He won't miss the round-the-clock hours, but he will miss "the camaraderie, the challenges and rewards of a large company".

He has no real regrets. Pushed to name a highlight, he cites the 1992 Air Expo and the huge Soviet Beriev Albatross flying boat.

"You never lose that 'wow' factor here."