Queensland Airports CEO Update

Transcript

Chris Mills:So, Chris Mills, I'm the Chief Executive Officer of Queensland Airports Limited. So we own and operate 4 airports in Queensland: Gold Coast, Townsville, Mount Isa, and Longreach. And I guess we're here to talk about what we're doing in that space. We are seeing really strong growth in our Gold Coast Airport, and we have actually 2 major redevelopments planned, one for Gold Coast and one for Townsville, to take account of what's happening. So Gold Coast Airport, we had another record year last year, just the year just finished, 6.2 million passengers. We're bursting at the seams, so for the terminal that we have, it was never designed to cater for the sort of numbers that we've got going through there. So we've been planning for a long time, and our next development expands the GFA, adds in more retail, provides more gates, more apron space, all the things that you'd expect project and really takes us to another level, and that's literally because Gold Coast Airport is a single-level terminal building currently. The new terminal building will go up 3 levels, so we will have aerobridges for the first time at the Gold Coast, and that's something that our customers have been telling us they'd like to see. And as I say, it just provides better amenity and better facilitation of our passengers. So that's Gold Coast, and that's in fact underway. We've cleared the site and we've just started with mobilising the builder. And then in our Townsville Airport, we are about to embark on more of a refurbishment of the interior of the airport, but also opening up more space and providing better facilitation, doing some more work on the apron parking as well. So just dealing with some pressure points, not on the same scale as Gold Coast, but it's good timing. I mean, while we're talking about the airports, Mount Isa, we've actually just started a project to provide car parking structure with solar panels over the top, and that's going to provide over 50% of the power needs for Mount Isa Airport. So I guess we've got a range of projects ranging from the large scale to the smaller scale, but a common theme throughout. As with any development project, we talk with the airlines and we engage with the airlines. After all, the airlines and our airports share the same customers, so it's important to have that engagement. That's what we're doing with Jetstar and Qantas at the moment. Virgin Group in fact for Townsville has agreed to the pricing path associated with the redevelopment, so it's really standard practice to negotiate the price path and aero charges as we work through our capital investment. And it's really just a process we're working through with Jetstar and Qantas. So while I know that there has been some media around it, really the fact is that we are continuing to work through the details and we'll continue to engage. and ideally get a resolution which works for both of us. Well, certainly we've got a capacity problem now, so that issue is that we just don't have enough areas to park planes, we don't have enough gates, we have congestion in various parts of the terminal. The terminal isn't coping well with it. It's a good problem to have. I'd rather have that problem than not. So that's exactly why we're working through our redevelopment plans to accommodate all of that. So the last 12 months have seen the commencement of direct services from China, the commencement of Hong Kong Airlines coming into the Gold Coast, and further growth in other international sectors. So our Malaysian services with AirAsia X, our route with KL has continued to grow, and really all of those international routes that we have and that we've added in have have put pressure on, but domestic as well. Domestic's been great growth for us, and we're an airport where about 5 million of our 6.2 million passengers are domestic. Gold Coast-Sydney is the 4th busiest route in Australia. Gold Coast-Melbourne is the 7th busiest route. So everything we're doing is about that, not just the international, but about the domestic passengers as well. So as I said, good problem to have, and that's what we're doing about it. We're expanding the terminal. So the instrument landing system, the ILS for the Gold Coast, is Something that has been— we've been working through for some time now. So we're conscious that as Australia's 6th biggest airport, we're the only one in the top 12 that actually doesn't have an ILS. And I think that reflects that we are somewhat of a victim of our rapid growth, is that some of that infrastructure needs to keep pace. For us, it's industry standard technology. This— the ILS is standard across all airports. Where we're at in the process is that the Minister has approved us proceeding with the ILS. There are a couple of community groups which have appealed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, so there is a process that is being worked through at the moment, and, and that will continue to play out over the coming months. And I guess it's a matter for the tribunal. We don't want to preempt their decision, and we can't preempt their decision, but we believe all the reasons we've put forward for proceeding with an ILS are correct. As I said, the Minister has already approved it. It's a matter for the AAT now. Look, really, it's continuing to build on what we already have. So some of those services that I've talked about, Hong Kong Airlines, which commenced only in January of this year, is running 3 times a week. So we'd like to see that frequency lift further. And that's been part of the great story as well, is that Gold Coast over time has expanded expanded and diversified so that it's not just low-cost carriers, it's a mix of low-cost and full-service. Low-cost has been great for the Gold Coast and will continue to be, but we will look at continuing to grow the frequency on some of those routes. So ideally, it'd be great to get them to daily services. We'll be looking at new markets and cities that can fly directly into Australia, and in fact, we are talking to some parties at the moment about opportunities which hopefully we'll be able to announce over the next few months. And even on a domestic front, Qantas has increased its capacity on Melbourne and Sydney, and we're seeing, I guess, across all the airlines, that's the great thing, is that growth's occurring. So we really want to support that, continue to grow it. We won't necessarily be looking to go out and just add as many new routes as we can to compete against the existing routes we have, but we'll certainly look to build up what we've got and and make that even stronger. Thank you.

Copyright policy: All transcripts on this site are the copyright of CAPA - Centre for Aviation. Our reproduction policy is as follows: you may quote up to 400 words of any transcript on the condition that you attribute the transcript to CAPA - Centre for Aviation and link to the original video page. All other use is prohibited. While we aim for 100% accuracy in the transcript, there may be some minor transcribing errors.