ACCC names Brisbane as best airport, cites service issues on Sydney and Melbourne
Brisbane Airport has been lauded by the country's corporate watchdog for the period covering 2009/10 while Sydney and Melbourne airports are grappling with services and car parking issues for the same period.
According to the annual airport monitoring report of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), airlines operating on terminals of Sydney Airport have been complaining with the levels of services they have been getting, notwithstanding the upgrades that management has recently instituted.
In his statement released on Monday, ACCC chair Graeme Samuel said that "while passengers appear to be relatively satisfied with the outcome, the airlines have not reported any significant improvement in the service they receive," a complaint that has been going on for several years now, Samuel noted.
Samuel said that while no improvements have seen, "the situation at Sydney Airport is in contrast to the other monitored airports, which appear to have been more responsive to the airlines' needs."
The ACCC said that the situation actually benefits the owner of the facilities, Macquarie Airports Ltd, which has a monopoly of the airport's operations and its current dominant position leads to "the airlines' ongoing dissatisfaction with the service they receive, as well as increasing prices and profits over time, all point to Sydney Airport earning monopoly profits from the services it provides to airlines."
On the other hand, Samuel said that Melbourne Airport is facing serious concerns of car parking on its terminals, which he said could affect "competitiveness of off-airport parking and private bus operators against the existing car parking services."
Samuel observed that "by reducing the ability of alternatives to compete, Melbourne Airport can increase demand for its own car parking services, charge higher prices to consumers and, therefore, earn monopoly profits."
Meanwhile, the same report said that Brisbane Airport has for the fifth time secured the top spot for ranking high on its overall service quality, which the airport management has attributed to additional investments it poured on infrastructure upgrades.
Brisbane Airport Corporation's Jim Carden revealed that they have been achieving substantial growth for three years in a row now on the back if infra improvements such as "the new road that was opened 18 months ago, improvements to the roads around the terminals, and the ongoing work in increasing car parking."