Airways New Zealand has announced its annual results for the year ending 30 June 2024. The air navigation services provider is reporting strong safety and operational performance and a positive financial result.
Throughout the year, Airways safely managed 491,449 flights through the 30 million square kilometres of airspace it controls. There were no serious air proximity events attributable to air traffic control.
Airways has continued to deliver on its core purpose of ensuring the safety of New Zealand skies, Board Chair Denise Church says.
“This includes enabling operations for returning carriers and new routes, in addition to supporting emerging entrants in our skies and the ever-growing uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sector,” she says.
The state-owned enterprise is reporting a net operating profit after tax (NOPAT) of $14.5m for the full year. This is $3.9m below budget, the result of a one-off, non-cash accounting entry to deferred tax, required due to a change in tax law removing depreciation on commercial buildings.
Airways is returning a dividend of $20 million to its Government shareholder.
“The dividend reflects a return of both profits and equity funds provided by our shareholder to support Airways’ business as the wider industry was recovering from the effects of ongoing COVID-19 disruption,” Ms Church says.
While the long-term outlook for New Zealand air traffic is strong, the 2025 financial year is expected to present headwinds, with continuing softening domestic and international demand, which presents Airways with a more challenging fiscal environment.
Air traffic volumes are around 10% lower than 2019 levels, primarily due to slower recovery in the domestic market. Global economic pressures will likely continue suppressing travel demand for the near term, with domestic air traffic expected to be 93% of 2019 volumes in FY25 and international traffic at 84%.
Appropriate prioritisation of work and continuation of close working links with stakeholders will support Airways to meet objectives over the coming year, Chief Executive James Young says.
“We are proud of our history as a high performing state-owned enterprise and we look forward to continuing to deliver value to New Zealand through the essential service we provide and financial return to our shareholder,” he says.
