Auckland International Airport Limited (AIA)

[BRICKS]

THERE buy of AUSTRALIAN real estate will grow faster in real terms than AUCKLAND
the AU dollar make more NZ$ they are in a bigger market which will grow faster, AU has 22 million people and soon will be 25 MILLION.. REST my CASE...

[Snoopy]

30 dollar taxi ride may seem a lot to you , but for most foreign visitors they would see nothing out of the ordinary about it.

$30 to travel 3.5km? I think most overseas tourists would notice it was a rip off. Of course thinking about it again, I should probably have gone to the back of the taxi rank and got a driver who had just arrived. One who hasn't built up a 'time bank' which needs a return. There is no compulsion to take the cab off the front of the rank and if drviers have no sense of fair play, then why should I?

Then again I presume a taxi driver in Auckland has to pay something to AIA to park at the airport. I would be very curious to know what that charge is. If that charge is $20 then perhaps the taxi drivers have a point with only offering fixed charge fares. Anyone know what the charge is?

SNOOPY

[peat]

snoopy does this really relate to AIA in any but the most abstract of ways?

[percy]

Hi snoopy.
my daughter arrived safely in paris.she was pleased her luggage arrived two days later.
A few years ago a bus delivered me to domestic terminal rather than international at Brisbane airport.A taxi wanted to charge me $30 to go to international. so you are not alone.I still get upset with airport loading airport rental firms charge.I now use Apex who pick you up at the airport and have their base just down the road.Donot get me started on trying to change flight times with airlines.I hate them all.AS for airport security at Sydney I go ape!!

[percy]

snoopy does this really relate to AIA in any but the most abstract of ways?

Sorry peat I too got off the subject.Think bricks has a point about aussie airport growth. I would like to go back to Cairns,would do it via Auckland,
but not Sydney after a poor no brain security making middle age and old age take off shoes and belts.Rock apes.

[macduffy]

snoopy does this really relate to AIA in any but the most abstract of ways?

It's hardly abstract.

AIA's income from airport services including rentals on retail outlets, parking, access charges to taxis, etc exceeds their income from aircraft movements!

AIA is essentially a property company.

[peat]

well sure it is a property company and its one that exploits its monopolistic situation to the hilt and this annoys me too when I'm forced to buy food out there etc - but I always find anecdotal comments that relate to large public companies annoying in this context
They're irrelevant and I think ultimately pointless.
Be a fundamental analyst or be a technical analyst but one person voting with their feet is not really 'discussing' a company.

Wasnt there a passenger count out today? now thats information.

And although I'm bearish in general on equities, using the Ichi Moku analysis that arco is famous for we can see on this weekly chart of AIA that price is above the cloud which is turning bullish in the future and showing support in the 1.80 region. We'd need to watch out for weakness in April (where the cloud is at its thinnest) though given we've had RSI divergence at the recent highs

[Snoopy]

Snoopy does this really relate to AIA in any but the most abstract of ways?

Peat, I posted my experience because I have seen many examples of New Zealand companies going to Australia (as AIA has now done with their Queensland Airport partial purchases), while neglecting their core businesses at home. I think it is a fair -underlying- question to ask whether AIA are really on their game at home, before that export their management expertise to Australia.

Perhaps the baggage handling delays I experienced were nothing to do with AIA? Perhaps it is because they are now X-raying every suitcase that come off all jets even on domestic flights, because some of those passengers might be transferring to international? Perhaps the delay was due to a one off equipment break down? Perhaps if I post here I will find out if my experience was atypical or not?

All I know is most people don't want to hang out airports. But they recognise going to the airport is a necessary part of the flying process.

Airports can best serve the consumer by making the process of going through the airport gateway as painless as possible. That means keeping queues to a minimum, yet having enough people space where crowds are unavoidable. It means having adequate signage and providing a polite and efficient consumer experience in all customer/staff interactions. I personally find it difficult to have a polite conversation when it is obvious the other party is grossly overcharging for a product or service. I used to avoid eating at airports because the food was always bad and overpriced. These days I find Airport food much more palatable and relatively affordable. I wouldn't go to an airport to dine, but I wouldn't avoid it, like I did in the past, either.

Why should taxi rides be massively more expensive locally at the Airport than taking the same ride in downtown Auckland? One reason *could* be that AIA *know* they have a captive market and slug taxi drivers with parking charges so high they have to be passed on to the consumer. Perhaps AIA doesn't worry about it because they know it is the taxi drivers who will get any backlash, not them.

All I know is that what with the baggage delays and problems with transportation, I left AIA hot and bothered and glad to get out of the place. I have never felt that way coming out of Wellington or Christchurch Airport. So why should going through Auckland Airport be such a relatively aggrevating experience? My hunch is that it was Auckland Airport that was really behind my aggrevation and not the frontmen: Jetstar and the Taxi companies.

Abstract? I would argue that the core gateway experience is what AIA is all about from the public perspective. And if AIA are not providing the core support to Jetstar and the taxi companies allow them to give a reliable service at a fair price to the end consumer, then IMO this is a serious core issue for Auckland Airport shareholders.

SNOOPY

discl: Do not hold AIA

[peat]

i re-iterate my view that personal anecdotal experiences are quite worthless in analysis of large organisations. they may possibly represent a common theme but if we think statistically then they dont constitute a sufficient sample.

whereas the numbers that were published today say that traffic volumes are holding up see link and picture attached

http://file.nzx.com/000/589/3296589.pdf


also to be frank I question whether the travellers satisfaction is even a factor here. the traveller may generate the need for an airport but in situations where the traveller has no choice or alternative then their experience (enjoyable or not) isnt hugely relevant. AIA customers are the airlines and the retailers.


but its a forum so hey I guess we say what think.... (and its a slow day here for me)

[ratkin]

Christchurch has to be the least stressful international getaway point imaginable . So easy and painless. Always fly singapore airlines so can go direct from chch thus avoiding Auckland

Airport quality very important to me. Every year i go to Cornwall for a few months , and always fly to schipol , then a flybe flight to Exeter.
Dutch think thats a weird way to go , however i avoid heathrow at almost any cost.

So i guess what im saying is that if an airport is bad enough people will go out of their way to avoid it.
Monopoly or not , people will find other routes if their experiences are bad