Passengers up, quality down: ACCC on airports
Passenger numbers at Australia’s major airports increased for the 2008 financial year, an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission report said.
Perth’s experienced the highest growth in passenger numbers – 13.5 per cent or 1.1 million.
But Sydney and Melbourne had biggest rise in absolute numbers – with approximately 1.8m additional passengers passing through each for the same period.
The report provide information not otherwise available in relation to airport quality. It is also a guide for operators to see if they have met user expectations, the ACCC said.
Brisbane topped the chart as the airport offering the best quality of service.
“Interestingly, the financial performance of the airports does not appear to be strongly related to the quality of service they provide,” the author’s chairman, Graeme Samuel, said.
“For example, users at Brisbane Airport remained the most satisfied in 2007 – 2008 whereas Sydney Airport was ranked last amongst the airports for the third consecutive year.”
The ACCC added airport car parking provided the greatest contribution towards total revenue at Melbourne Airport (contributing to 21pc of revenue).
In Sydney that rate was seven pc.
The national metropolitan average is about 11 pc.
