Australia's four largest airports saw rising revenues and greater profits in the last financial year, despite recording mixed service quality.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) 2016-2017 Airport Monitoring Report on Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth airports rated the latter two gateways "good" in service quality, while Sydney and Melbourne fell from "good' in the previous year to "satisfactory".
Perth overtook Brisbane with the highest overall quality rating of the four airports, coinciding with the completion of its A$1 billion ($758 million) investment programme.
The report also measured financial metrics for the four airports, and found that Sydney had the largest aeronautical revenue per passenger at A$18.34 – up 4.4% year-on-year – while Melbourne was the lowest at A$12.44
“It is not surprising that the airports are so profitable, given that they face little competitive pressure and no price regulation,” says ACCC Chairman Rod Sims.
“We remain concerned that the current regulatory regime which is limited to monitoring the covered airports, doesn’t constrain the market power of four of Australia’s major airports. Unconstrained monopolies often have an incentive and ability to charge excessive prices while lacking strong incentives to improve services.”
The report shows that Brisbane airport had the largest aeronautical profit margin of the four at 46.8%, up 1.4% on the year prior. It was followed by Sydney (46.1%), Melbourne (41.5%) and Perth (34.9%).
Melbourne's aeronautical profit margin saw the greatest improvement with a 3.3% year-on-year growth, while Sydney's fell 0.5%.
Total passenger numbers at the four airports reached 115 million in 2016–17, up by 34.9% from a decade ago, with international passengers increasing 6.7%, compared with just 0.9% growth in domestic passengers.
Sydney continued to Australia's largest airport with total passenger numbers increasing by 3.8% to 42.7 million. It is followed by Melbourne at 35.2 million (up 3.7%). Brisbane 23.1 million (up 1.6%) and Perth 14.3 million (down 1.4%).
Source: Cirium Dashboard
