Ewan Wilson
It is my belief that Hamilton residents are not getting enough value out of Hamilton Airport, either financially or in terms of the service it provides them. Nor in recent years have they been given the courtesy of appropriate visibility or consultation over the airport’s strategic planning.
The airport’s strategic future is at a crossroads and right now is the moment to have a conversation over what should happen next.
This urgency is driven by two factors. The first is that last year Hamilton Airport Company directors made a unilateral decision to surrender a long-running resource consent which would allow them to lengthen the airport’s runway to accommodate more international flights.
Since 2011 the airport has had 16 hectares of land designated for a potential runway extension, protecting the land from other development in case a runway extension was needed. This decision to let the resource consent lapse, which was made without appropriate consultation with any of its shareholding councils, appears at least partially due to the company not wanting to disrupt its own significant property development projects around the airport which in recent years have generated most of its income.
The airport directors also received so-called independent advice from aeronautical experts. My concern about that is that the same consultants were also advising Auckland Airport and the last thing that airport would want to see is an international competitor just an hour down the road. If the proposal to lengthen the runway is permanently shelved, Hamilton Airport’s future is forever limited by the current runway length.
Planes on the apron at Hamilton Airport.
Secondly, Hamilton finances are under more pressure than at any time in the city’s history. Ratepayers are staring down the barrel of a 19.9 per cent rate rise and the city is $860m in debt. Historically Hamilton City Council invested $7 million for its 50 per cent share in the airport. The airport asset is now valued at around $230 million and if there was ever a time when Hamilton should be gaining some value out of its shareholding – it is now. Instead, the best the airport company could offer the city with in its last annual dividend was $250,000. Not good enough.
Here’s my suggestion. The decision to surrender the runway resource consent needs to be urgently revisited and Hamilton City Council should be looking to sell between 10 per cent and 15 per cent of its shares – possibly more. My reasons for suggesting this are that there could be significant opportunities for Hamilton Airport should it have a commercially minded shareholder in the mix. Why? Because Auckland Airport is under severe stress. It is at loggerheads with airlines over hiking its fees to finance an $8 billion upgrade of its infrastructure.
What opportunities could there be for Hamilton Airport if it took on a commercial shareholder, lengthened its runway and then positioned itself as a competitor, just an hour down the road? While approved in principle, there is still time to re-think the runway plan but now is the time for a conversation.
And there may well be other factors motivating a council move to sell off shares. How about the opportunity to pay off some debt and lessen the load on long suffering ratepayers? The spotlight on Hamilton City Council’s financial woes has sharpened in recent months. Why not have another discussion about selling shares? And while we’re at, it let’s get the public involved in the runway decision.
This is our airport and the community deserves to be involved in the discussion.
See: Fight or flight
