Wellington Airport Reports Growth in Passengers and Earnings

Wellington Airport has today announced its financial results for the 12 months to 31 March 2024, with passenger numbers recovering well and strong earnings ahead of both last year and pre-pandemic levels. 

For the year ended 31 March 2024 the airport hosted 5.5 million passengers, an increase of almost 200,000 from the previous year and reaching 89% of pre-Covid levels (financial year ended 31 March 2020). Growth was particularly strong for international travel with a 31% increase in passengers from last year. 

The after-tax result is a net loss of $28.8 million, impacted by the Government’s removal of tax depreciation on commercial buildings. This tax change has had a one-off impact on Wellington Airport alongside many other New Zealand businesses. 

Wellington Airport chief executive Matt Clarke comments:

“We’ve seen strong revenue uplift across all parts of the business, resulting in an EBITDAF of $107.1 million.^[i] This is a very positive result, up from last year’s $89.6 million and pre-Covid $103.9 million. 

“This aligns with the global rebound in travel volumes and places Covid-19 firmly in the rear-view mirror. 

“Over the last year we’ve invested $67.7 million in infrastructure, working closely with our airline partners to lay the groundwork for future growth to meet the needs of Wellington and the wider region.”  

Other highlights from the Annual Review for 2023/24 include:

• All pre-Covid routes are now restored with the returned carriers operating at or above their pre-Covid levels of capacity. 
• Qantas is now Wellington’s largest international airline, well ahead of any other airline by total seats and number of return flights operated. By the end of this year Qantas will be operating 40% more seats than pre-Covid. 
• Fiji Airways continues to be very popular with 81% more seats flown than pre-Covid.
• Taxiway Bravo reconstruction complete and exciting projects commenced including construction of the new Airport Fire Station. 
• Excellent progress on sustainability, including a hydrogen trial and being selected as homebase for Air New Zealand’s electric demonstrator aircraft service from 2026. 
• On track for net zero emissions for our own direct operations by 2028, two years ahead of originally planned. 

The full Annual Review is available here and Financial Reports here.
^[i] EBITDAF before subvention payment is a useful non-NZ GAAP measure of earnings which presents management’s view of the underlying business operating performance. A reconciliation between Wellington Airport’s net profit after tax and EBITDAF before subvention payment is set out in the NZX announcement and Note A1 of the Annual Report for the year ended 31 March 2024.