Queenstown Airport’s announced a half-year dividend of almost $6 million — the most significant payout since 2019.
Airport CEO Glen Sowry says the board’s elected, under its dividend policy, to pay the maximum 70% of the net profit after tax (NPAT) to its shareholders, Queenstown’s council and Auckland International Airport Ltd.
It equates to $4.49m for the council for the first six months of this financial year.
That’s about $150 per rate payer and, annualising that, it’ll be ‘‘a bit north’’ of $300 per ratepayer going to the council’s coffers.
‘‘I think it’s a really important and significant contribution to the QLDC’s balance sheet,’’ Sowry says.
‘‘Business is performing well and we’re really pleased — for the [first] half year, our NPAT was $11.5m.’’
The last dividend, last August, was $1.3m.
Sowry says the dividend payment’s a chance to reward shareholders ‘‘for their patience’’ through what’s been an incredibly-challenging period, due to the impacts of Covid.
On the rebound, he says no one anticipated how quickly the travel industry, and international tourism, would recover — passenger numbers travelling through Queenstown Airport are ‘‘very similar’’ to pre-Covid.
‘‘Winter last year … you couldn’t sit on a chairlift without speaking to an Aussie on the skifields, we saw very strong demand for Australians coming to Queenstown Lakes region for ski holidays.
‘‘Domestically, in part [those] who might have ordinarily gone to Ruapehu found that was not skiable, so we’ve seen more down this side of the country.
‘‘That’s continued on.’’
Sowry says there’s still strong demand out of Australia and, particularly over the past couple of months, ‘‘really good demand’’ from the North American markets.
‘‘Business is performing well and we’re really pleased … we’re really proud of the result and the contribution we’re able to make to the financial wellbeing of the district, but, of course, we’re also highly conscious of the role that we have to play around the sustainability of the region.
‘‘That’s why we’re very committed to and supportive of the carbon zero 2030 aspiration that Lake Wānaka [Tourism] and QLDC have put forward, and the masterplan will be very focused on how we can help enable and achieve that.’’
