AIA might not be quite the monopoly international gateway you think it is Jim. Did you know that Christchurch is on a fast track plan to demolish their entire airport and rebuild it again, all within the next couple of years? The new control tower is already up, as is the new multistory parking building.
If you have been to Christchurch before and noted in particular that the international terminal was already of a good standard and is only around five years old you would be right. However, the fact that it is earmarked for demolition already should show you that we here in Christchurch mean business.
There will be no more marching between domestic and international terminals down here (or god forbid going by shuttle bus in some centres), because all facilities will be centrally located. This new centralised structure will allow CIA to charge relatively lower fees to the airlines while maintaining or even increasing profit margins.
AIA will continue to be a respectable domestic hub, to be sure. But from 2012, AIA's days as a sizeable international gateway will be over, bar the odd flight across the tasman. They just won't be able to compete. The current rather extravagant international terminal in Auckland is, fortunately for you shareholders, of sufficient height to be able to store 747s inside of it. So with cosmetic demolition of the interior, there will be enough space to mothball Air New Zealand's by then ageing gas guzzling 747s inside, giving the hapless AIA shareholder a token income on that overbuilt space.
AIA will still 'deserve a premium' even in it's reduced form, but I put it to you that AIA already has a premium now. And today's premium will have to be pricked.
Grabbing food out of the food trolleys as they pass down the aisle just because your own plate is getting low is, to my mind, unnecessarily uncouth behaviour. I am sorry if your food addiction has made you so large that you can no longer move in your seat. But isn't claiming that you have 'no exit strategy' a little defeatest? Could they not just sit you down the back near where the food supplies are forklifted in. Then in the event of an emergency simply roll you out of the XL sized cabin door at the back ;-P?Quote:
I always top up my holding when it is on a dip and I have NO exit strategy.
SNOOPY
P.S. The information that I gave you on what is happening at Christchurch Airport was no joke!