Sydney Airport carparking annual profit at $97.8 million

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has released an Annual Airport Monitoring Report showing the performance of Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney airports. The report showed that Sydney earned the highest in terms of car parking fee. According to the report, the annual revenue of the Sydney airport was $134 million or $6,042 annual revenue per parking space -- earnings before interest, tax and amortisation.

According to the Annual Airport Monitoring Report, Sydney's car parking revenue increased by 5.4 percent in real terms to $97.8 million. It was the airport's largest revenue since privitisation. It was an increase of 73.1 percent in terms of profit margin.

Sydney Airport is the largest airport in Australia that has provided services to 41.1 million passengers between 2015 to 2016, a 4.8 percent increase from the previous year. Both domestic and international passengers increased by 6.3 percent and 4.0 percent, respectively. Its passenger growth resulted to $709.8 million aeronautical revenue, a growth of 8.9 percent from the previous year. In terms of aeronautical assets, the airport has added $746 million. The large portion of the assets came from the purchase of the Qantas domestic terminal. Sydney Airport's quality of service was also rated resulting to an increase of service rating from satisfactory to good.

The monitoring report revealed that the four airports were rated good in terms of quality of service. However, both Perth and Brisbane were the only airports that were rated good in its 2014-15 report that maintained the good category. Both Melbourne and Sydney came from the satisfactory rate. “It is encouraging to see that all four airports made it into the 'good' category for overall quality of service ratings this year, in addition to a second straight year of notable improvement by Perth Airport. However, there is still room for the airports to better satisfy both passengers and airlines,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said in a statement.

The report showed that the airports were collecting more revenue per passenger than a decade ago. “The ACCC estimates that over the past decade, these airports have collected $1.57 billion more in revenue from airlines than they would otherwise have collected if average prices were held constant in real terms. Despite these much higher revenues per passenger, ratings of service quality are not materially different from those seen a decade ago,” Sims said.

Developments associated with the proposed Western Sydney Airport was included in the report. Sims said that a second international airport competing with Sydney airport would provide benefits for the airlines and the consumers. “On the other hand, a common owner of the two airports would have an incentive to restrict investment and delay the new airport in order to maximise returns from its existing assets. If Sydney Airport does not build and operate the new airport, the Government can build the airport and sell the assets once it is already established,” Sims said.