Upgrade Planned for Christchurch International Airport

Upgrade Planned for Christchurch International Airport
Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand

17 February 2004  


The South Island's busiest airport is on the threshold
of a $130 million upgrade to cope with an expected
boom in passenger numbers. 

Christchurch International Airport's ageing domestic
terminal is to be completely revamped, and its
international terminal will be expanded. 

A multi-storey car-parking building, the construction
of new aprons and taxiways, and a small addition to
the length of the main north-east/south-west runway
are also planned. 

The upgrade to international facilities is expected to
be under way soon and be complete in October, in time
for the next summer season. 

Work on replacing the domestic terminal is likely to
begin later in the year and take several years to
finish. 

But ratepayers are not expected to have to dip into
their pockets to pay for the expansions. 

The airport company plans to borrow the money it needs
for the redevelopments and will not rule out
increasing landing charges to raise some extra cash,
although that may get passed on to air travellers in
future. 

The airport chalked up a record 3,736,588 domestic
passenger movements last year, up 11.4 percent on
2002. It also recorded 88,818 international and
domestic commercial aircraft movements, 8.6 percent
higher than the previous year and 5.7 percent more
than 2000, the previous record holder. 

December was a record month for international
passenger arrivals and departures, with 110,870
movements, an 11 percent increase on December 2002 and
1.8 percent higher than January 1999, the previous
record month. 

During the first two weeks of January, international
passenger numbers were up 15 percent on the same
period last January. 

Christchurch International Airport Limited (CIAL)
chief executive George Bellew said there had been a 28
percent increase in seat capacity during the summer to
date, greater route flexibility, and improved
connections through Australia, Singapore and Korea. 

The airport company predicts it will exceed 4.5
million total passenger movements this year. 

Mr Bellew said the airport company had a very good
credit rating and a strong balance sheet. It was very
unlikely the company would ask for money from its
major shareholder Christchurch City Holdings Ltd
(CCHL), which owns 75 percent of CIAL. 

However, in the financial year to the end of June
2003, CIAL's after-tax profit of $13.041 million was
8.5 percent down on the previous year. 

CCHL chairwoman Paddy Austin said even if the airport
company did request some council funding for the
expansion, it would not affect rates because there was
flexibility to find money from other companies in the
group. 

"Ratepayers can relax this time around," she said. 

The price tag for the work makes it one of the biggest
capital developments in Canterbury in recent years.
The airport has been the focus for a number of recent
new initiatives, including the arrival of cut-price
airline Pacific Blue, the expanded Christchurch Engine
Centre, and a 10,000sqm integrated cargo warehouse. 

Mr Bellew said CIAL was also in talks with Dubai-based
airline Emirates, which now flies into Auckland, about
adding Christchurch to its list of destinations if it
expanded its Australian services. 

Increased domestic and international passenger
movements in the last year were predicted to continue.


"The thing that drives our expansion is buoyancy of
the market. The market has come back very strongly in
terms of international and domestic numbers and seat
availability." 

Four new departure gates would be added to the
international terminal to make a total of 11. The
domestic facilities would be replaced with a terminal
that would integrate "appropriately" with the
international terminal, he said. 

The airport would attempt to minimise disruption to
travellers during the next few years while work was
carried out. 

Mr Bellew said landing fees had not been changed for
three years. While there was scope for increasing
them, he wanted Christchurch to remain as competitive
an airport as possible. 

CCHL is meeting the airport company on Wednesday to
talk about the expansion plans in more detail. 

CIAL chairman Syd Bradley emphasised the
redevelopment, which had the complete support of the
board, was still only in its early stages. 

"We have a lot of work to do. It's a big investment of
course, (and) it's a very important one following our
forefathers who had the initiative to press on with a
pretty important public facility for Canterbury." 



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