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Speaker 1: The e Commerce Commission says Aukland Airport has been overcharging airlines

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Speaker 1: by one hundred and ninety million dollars since twenty twenty three.

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Speaker 1: So where did the airlines get that money from your airfares?

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Speaker 1: This year's price increase won't be as big as initially planned.

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Speaker 1: After the findings were released, usually the airport's association chief

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Speaker 1: executive Billy Moore is with me, good morning to you, Billy.

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Speaker 2: Good morning.

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Speaker 1: So there's a lot of money. One hundred and ninety

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Speaker 1: million dollars. How did no one notice? Oh?

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Speaker 2: Look, and this is part of the process, and I

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Speaker 2: know it sounds a bit boring, but it's true. So

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Speaker 2: the Comments Commission has come out with its judgment and

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Speaker 2: Aukland the Airport has responded immediately to lower its prices

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Speaker 2: for the rest of the period. And so what that

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Speaker 2: means is that there won't be overcharging for the period

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Speaker 2: because they'll be compensating for that one hundred and ninety

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Speaker 2: million for the rest of that pricing period, so it

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Speaker 2: will eat it out. It wasn't unexpected in terms of

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Speaker 2: the feedback from the Commission because of how long these

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Speaker 2: processes take. The Aukland the Airport team had to had

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Speaker 2: to use a previous version of what we call the

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Speaker 2: Commerce Commission's input methodologies, which helped them figure out what

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Speaker 2: the right rate of return for their own viases should be.

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Speaker 2: That meant that the Commission was bound to have some

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Speaker 2: feedback on there. They've given that feedback and the airport

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Speaker 2: has made that adjustments. So that's what the system.

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Speaker 1: Is supposed to do exactly. But you know, the airport

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Speaker 1: received the final report from the ComCom on Friday. They

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Speaker 1: worked over the weekend. They revised its costs down just

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Speaker 1: like that on a Monday. So does that suggest they

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Speaker 1: already knew they were guilding the lily?

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Speaker 2: Well, the draft report had been released in July last

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Speaker 2: year already kind of indicating the Commerce Commission's direction of travel,

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Speaker 2: so that gave a bit of an indication quite well

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Speaker 2: in advance. Then there was a cross the mission process. Again,

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Speaker 2: it sounds a bit boring, but that means that everyone,

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Speaker 2: including the airlines and the airports, provide more feedback to

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Speaker 2: the Commission to make sure that they're coming out with

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Speaker 2: the right call, so that they were ready to respond.

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Speaker 2: But it's not unexpected.

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Speaker 1: That they would be okay, But you know, the perception therefore,

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Speaker 1: is that the airport's trying to get away with as

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Speaker 1: much as it can.

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Speaker 2: Look, I disagree when you might expect. Look, fundamentally, we'd

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Speaker 2: have to build infrastructure in this country, and there's two

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Speaker 2: things that we need to get there done, which the

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Speaker 2: airport has been focusing on. The first is a stable

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Speaker 2: regulation for investors to see that the system is stable

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Speaker 2: and working. And second is I fair rate of return?

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Speaker 2: Otherwise the airport can't raise the funds for this essential infrastructure.

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Speaker 2: So part of this process is about working with the

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Speaker 2: commission and providing all the information on the table transparently

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Speaker 2: so that we can get to that what is that

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Speaker 2: right rate of return for a long running investment like

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Speaker 2: an airport.

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Speaker 1: So you would say, you would say that even though

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Speaker 1: they overcharge us by one hundred ninety million dollars in

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty three, this is proof that the regulatory system

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Speaker 1: is actually working acceptably.

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Speaker 2: That's right, because the commissions come out with this adjustment

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Speaker 2: in the newport has adjusted. That's how the system is

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Speaker 2: supposed to work. Yes, they went too high, but they

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Speaker 2: have made the adjustment and they will all smooth out early.

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Speaker 1: Superior, Billy, I thank you so much for your time today.

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