Auckland Airport lowers international charges as Asian campaign continues

WELLINGTON, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Auckland Airport, New Zealand's main international gateway, announced Thursday it is cutting passenger charges on international flights as it pushes ahead with a campaign to boost services with Asia and China.

The company's new pricing schedule for the next five years would cut the average international passenger charge by 58 NZ cents (45 U.S. cents) to 21.55 NZ dollars from July 1.

However, the average domestic passenger charge would rise by 1. 32 NZ dollars to 5.55 NZ dollars, which would contribute to the capital raised for building a new domestic terminal, said company chief executive Simon Moutter.

Over the following four years, average charges, which are collected from airlines, would rise by 2 percent annually, Moutter said in a statement.

"Over recent years, we've put in a massive effort to grow international passenger volumes. We've been investing significantly in initiatives to grow tourism and encourage more airlines to fly here, more often especially from the high growth travel markets of Asia," said Moutter.

Increases in the number of passengers passing through Auckland Airport had helped to spread airport costs over a larger base and reduce international charges on a per passenger basis, he said.

"This gives us greater alignment with airlines on the risk and reward of passenger volume growth, and more importantly is great news for the tourism sector, which is such an important contributor to the New Zealand economy."

Auckland's international charges were "middle of the pack" compared with other airports around the world served by Air New Zealand, and the new pricing would ensure they remained competitive and near or below average, he said.

Last month, Auckland Airport announced it was aiming to triple the number of services flying to China by 2020 as part of an ambitious plan to expand New Zealand's tourism industry.

The airport's Ambition 2020 growth plan showed there was potential to grow the number of international visitor arrivals from 2.6 million last year to more than 3.5 million in 2020, with Asia, and especially China, showing the greatest growth potential.

The airport forecast the number of visitors from China rising from 160,000 a year to more than 430,000 by 2020.

The plan stated that the number of direct flight visitors from China could grow from 50,000 a year to 170,000 by 2020 if air services between New Zealand and China tripled in number.

Many more opportunities to deepen existing country markets existed through connections to relatively untapped regions, such as the Sunshine Coast, Perth and Adelaide in Australia, and Shenzhen, Qingdao, Shenyang and Chengdu in China, it said.

Sourced: Xinhuanet