To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Auckland Airport Chief Executive, Carrie Hurihanganui. Please go ahead.
Welcome and good morning to everyone joining the call. As outlined, I'm Carrie Hurihanganui, Chief Executive of Auckland International Airport, and today I am joined by Chief Financial Officer Phil Neutze. I'm really pleased to be able to share the financial results from FY 2022 with you, particularly as we look at after more than 750 days since COVID began. FY 2022 was definitely a year of two halves, with the majority of the first half constrained, as you know, by lockdowns and travel restrictions, both at borders as well as domestic borders. The second half starting to see the easing of those travel restrictions and most notably, the border reopening to Australians from April. Now with that, we have seen a steady and gradual return of long-awaited domestic and international travel.
Our teams have been working hard to ensure that New Zealand is on the radars of international airlines and supporting them with their relaunches. It is a competitive market globally with travel volumes skyrocketing in some markets. Key for us and what's on our mind is as we attract travelers back to New Zealand, ensuring that we, and that is the royal we from a New Zealand perspective, can deliver on the quality of experience that they expect, which will be vital from a visiting brand perspective, word of mouth, and return visitations. Now, we've got quite a bit we'd like to cover with you today before we do get into the Q&A session. Let's jump into slide three to kick things off. These pictures represent, you know, that recovery has been driven by the desire for reconnection.
Families and friends, business partners that had been apart for over two years, and that drive to come together has been aptly named revenge travel, and that has certainly been in play with international capacity increasing quickly to 40% of pre-COVID levels just over those two short months from April through to June. That jumped again in July to over 50%. We are seeing that desire to reconnect well and truly. If we move to slide five and start to look at the results themselves. Again, the full year results do reflect a year that continued to feel the impacts of the pandemic in the first half, and then that recovery starting with real meaning as we headed into quarter four.
Passenger movement really starts to play that game of two halves I've talked about before, declined overall by 13% to 5.6 million. That was primarily driven by the decrease in domestic PAX. That was 27% down from the previous period or previous year. That was partially offset by the increase in international travelers or passengers that includes transits of an increase of 123%, but it wasn't quite enough to offset from a net perspective that domestic decline. That then plays through as we look at the financial year revenue. It did increase by 7% to just over NZD 300 million, and that is played through with lifts across aeronautical, retail, and property revenue lines. Operating EBITDAFI declined from that previous year by 16% to NZD 144.5 million.
FY 2022 will be Auckland Airport's second-ever annual result of underlying loss after tax at NZD 11.6 million. That is up NZD 27.8 million or 71% from FY 2021. Total reported profit after tax was NZD 191.6 million, that is down 59%, and no dividend will be paid. Aircraft movements, much like passengers, that was down 13%, again, driven by the drop in domestic movements in the first half. That drop was 19%, due to the domestic lockdown and travel restrictions. What we did see in the gradual reopening of borders, the international movements were up 21%. Finally, from a capital expenditure, again, we saw a lift from FY 2021, an increase of 29% to just over NZD 253 million.
That really was reflecting the increased core aeronautical investment in renewal activity that we took, particularly when there was lower activity and traffic, and that was across airfield and roading networks. It also included expenditure on the planning enabling works to support the future development of the integrated international and domestic terminal, alongside some property development such as the Hellmann Worldwide Logistics and the works that have commenced on the transport hub. As we move to slide six, the second half of FY 2022 started to see that recovery really beginning to show in key business lines. Aero revenue lifted 7% to NZD 94.7 million, and that was driven by those borders starting to open and more international passengers. Again, the domestic offset.
Without sounding like a broken record, I suspect that is going to be the theme that you're gonna hear throughout this. From a retail revenue perspective, that was up 28% on prior year. While domestic retail did suffer relative to FY 2021, the opening of borders really has led to a positive injection or impact into the international retail performance as it starts to gain some momentum. Car parking income decreased by 9%. Again, those elevated alert levels associated with Delta and Omicron outbreaks played out there. However, with things now returning to, and I hesitate to say a level of normality, but the new normal, we are seeing domestic car parking demand outpacing passenger recovery.
I will pick this up in a little bit more detail later in the presentation. Property continues to be resilient, as it has, and was in FY 2021 as well. Rental income was NZD 112.9 million, which was an increase of 12%. Now the income growth in year was primarily driven by new properties leased this year, so that is, Hellmann and Gervase Wilton, rental growth from existing portfolio and the full year effect of properties leased last year. When we look at hotels, the underlying performance was supported. If you'll remember, the Novotel was in use as the Ministry of Health quarantine facility throughout the majority of the period. If we look across both, Ibis and the Novotel, the average occupancy for the year was 40%.
If we look at Queenstown, again, similar stories. The decline in overall, performance and passenger numbers was related to that first half of the year, with, domestic passengers decreased by 16%, but also saw a lift in international PAX volumes of 50% with, a large proportion was coming through in quarter four. If we move to slide seven. Key message here is Auckland is open for business. Now, while passenger numbers were impacted in the first half, there have been clear signals of the desire to return to travel in the second half as borders have begun opening. International air travel now is the strongest it has been since COVID first closed our borders. It hit close to 40% as at, June, and then domestic reaching over 80%, by that point in time.
If we move to slide eight, please. Our focus really is about setting up for the future. With borders open, our focus is to reconnect New Zealand to each other and the world, and to do this, we are working with airlines to rebuild capacity, frequency, and passenger numbers. Now we know how much our customers enjoy shopping and the dining experience. It really is part of that overseas holiday or work trip, and we're working incredibly hard to make it the best experience possible. That means ensuring that all relevant travel-related products and services and retail are up and running to meet the increased activity and dwell time that comes with that.
In line with this recovery, we are also now focused on reestablishing the key aeronautical infrastructure developments that had been put on hold when COVID took hold, alongside continued investment in commercial property developments that make sense. Now, I'd like to hand over to Phil to take us through the financial performance in detail before coming back to talk, a little bit about that forward look. Phil, can I hand to you?
Thanks, Carrie, and welcome to your first full year results with COVID. Isn't it great to finally see a strong rebound happening in both domestic and international PAX over May, June, and July this year. We're on slide 10 now, and even though the last two months of FY 2022 were much stronger than FY 2021 in terms of international PAX, total PAX volumes were down 13% on FY 2021, as Carrie mentioned. This was because of the devastating impact of Auckland's regional lockdown on domestic PAX, especially over September, October and November last year. Cast your minds back, and we're calling this the 107-day lockdown. Hopefully I've got the number right. Domestic PAX were therefore down 27% versus FY 2021. On to slide 11.
International flight movements in NACTO were up approximately 20% on PCP, and this reflected the progressive loosening of border restrictions from the end of February this year. This was way less than the 124% increase in international PAX that we enjoyed in FY 2022, admittedly off a low base, and it reflects that international flight movements and seat capacity have been supported since March 2020. That was first by the International Airfreight Capacity scheme, and that was replaced by the Maintaining International Air Connectivity or MIAC scheme in May 2021. There's been a significant surplus of international seat capacity until quite recently. That dynamic has obviously changed recently. This facilitated the more than doubling of international PAX that we saw in FY 2022 with only 20% more flight movements. Moving now to slide 12.
The revenue picture is pretty clean in FY 2022. We had a 7% increase on PCP to circa NZD 300 million. Expenses are much more complicated. Sorry about that, guys, but, ladies and gentlemen. PCP expenses benefited from just over NZD 21 million of reversals of over accrued expenses in FY 2020. These related to CapEx project write-offs and termination costs and expected credit losses. FY 2022 expenses, on the other hand, include another NZD 6.9 million of CapEx project impairments, and these mainly relate to some changes we expect to the Park & Ride South project when that gets going, Domestic Strata Lounge and the Northern Runway Design costs. These projects were paused, and as I mentioned, will likely be rescoped when they recommence.
Adjusting for these abnormal expenses and credits, as well as changes in government wage subsidies received over both years, normalized OpEx was up by 16% in FY 2022, and we set this out at the normalized analysis on slide 37. Take a look at that. FY depreciation of NZD 113.1 million came in a smidgen below the bottom of the NZD 115 million-NZD 120 million guidance that I gave back at the interim results announcement in February. FY 2022 interest of NZD 53.7 million was similarly just below the bottom of my NZD 55 million-NZD 60 million guidance. We're now on slide 13.
Passenger services charges increased by 40% in FY 2022, and this is because of the doubling of international packs versus PCP, and it's despite domestic packs being down 27% and total packs being down 13%. The reason why that all adds up is because international passenger charges are roughly five times domestic charges on a per pack basis. Similar story for retail income. It lifted by nearly 30% in FY 2022. Again, despite total packs being down by 13%, and it's for the same reason. It was very pleasing to see yet another solid lift in an investment property rental income. It was up NZD 12.4 million or 12% for the year. Three-quarters of this increase was from new properties added to the portfolio, either on FY 2022 or part way through FY 2021.
The balance came from existing property rent increases, partly offset by the NZD 1 million increase in investment property rent abatements that we provided to a small number of tenants that are still struggling under the impacts of COVID-19. As I mentioned earlier, despite slide 14, which from now on is showing a 42% lift in OpEx in FY 2022 versus PCP, after adjusting for the big swings in CapEx project impairments, expected credit losses and government wage subsidies, normalized OpEx was up by 16%. This reflect the planned ramp-up in head count and operational activity, to ensure that we were well-placed for the international pax ramp-up that we expected in the second half of FY 2022. We're pretty pleased with how that panned out.
I don't think we saw quite the level of congestion issues that had been experienced at other airports globally. Our philosophy there is to get the resources on board slightly ahead of the curve so that we can continue to focus on customer experience. Back to the numbers. To add to the noise in FY 2022 expenditure figures, FY 2022 depreciation expense reduced by NZD 4 to NZD 4.2 million. That was after we restated the FY 2021 results to expense software as a service investment that had previously been capitalized. Once that was expensed, that lowered our depreciation by that NZD 4.2 million I mentioned. Interest expense reduced dramatically in FY 2022. It's reflected the significant reduction in average debt balance over FY 2022, following the repayment of $400 million USD of USPP borrowings over that financial year of FY 2021.
It also reflected the one-off USPP prepayment and swap close out costs of nearly NZD 24 million that adversely impacted FY 2021. On to slide 15 now. I've already talked about the OpEx noise across FY 2021 and FY 2022. After we adjust for that, there was a NZD 20.7 million increase in normalized OpEx in FY 2022. This. The main components of this increase was just over NZD 9 million increase in staff costs, a nearly NZD 4 million increase in outsourced operations. That funds the likes of the car parking activities, trolley services, bus operations, and the like, and a circa NZD 10 million increase in repairs and maintenance. We took advantage of the low traffic numbers to accelerate some proactive maintenance during the year.
These increases were partly offset by NZD 1.9 million of reductions across some other expense categories. We're now on to slide 16. This is pretty self-explanatory, and it lists the key projects comprising our circa NZD 250 million net CapEx in FY 2022. That's after NZD 6.9 million of impairments. This was at the low end of the NZD 250 million-NZD 300 million CapEx guidance that we gave for FY 2022. Moving to slide 17. This shows that total drawn debt increased by circa NZD 84 million to just under NZD 1.5 billion as at 30 June 2022. This is more than NZD 700 million below Auckland Airport's peak borrowings that we had of NZD 2.19 billion. That was in June 30th 2019.
Obviously this debt repayment was financed by the NZD 1.2 billion equity raise that we completed in early April 2020. Also, during the FY 2022 financial year, we went back to the debt capital markets for the first time in approximately two years, and we successfully raised NZD 150 million in the New Zealand debt capital markets, and that was November 2021. We also refinanced nearly NZD 230 million of bank facilities that would otherwise have matured over the upcoming financial year. We agreed new EBITDA-based interest coverage covenants with our banking group in February 2020. This was a next step from the agreement that we reached back in July. So this is in February 2021, I should say. No, 2022. Let me get that right. Sorry, guys, and girls. Yeah.
We've agreed a new EBITDA-based interest coverage covenants with our banking group in February this year. That's 2022, kicks in from back in July 2021. This was a prudent step given the uncertainty at the start of this financial year about how the remainder of FY 2022 would play out. In the end, we delivered interest coverage of 2.58 x in FY 2022, and that was versus the previous EBITDA-based interest coverage covenant 2 x. It was an abundance of caution. Now on to slide 18, and this is really just an FYI on our balance sheet. There's not a lot I need to say about this one, and perhaps I'll just call out that the equity book value increased by 3% in FY 2022 versus FY 2021.
This increase was driven mainly by the NZD 204.4 million investment property revaluation that went straight to retained earnings and the net NZD 74.4 million revaluation increase in the property, plant, and equipment asset class, and that went to revaluation reserves. Let's go back to Carrie.
Fantastic. Thank you, Phil. Can you talk a little bit about sort of where to from here, the journey ahead? If we move to slide 20 on that, I think we can say that the recovery is well and truly underway. You know, I think if we look back to March, we were sitting at about 20% of international capacity compared to 2019. That is looking to grow to be anticipated at 70% by the end of this calendar year. International seat capacity has continued to show positive growth. Now, I do need to call out these numbers are based on slot filings, so that is what we anticipate to operate and what our airlines are telling us they're going to operate.
You know, we do know and we do see sometimes that what's filed versus what's operated can have a little bit of variability in that. You know, the restarting of previous routes has gained momentum since borders have started opening meaningfully from March and April. We've seen a significant step-up in July following the end of the financial year, with Air New Zealand start restarting over eight more of its key routes in July. Hawaiian Airlines restarted to Honolulu. Air Tahiti Nui going to LA via Papeete. Qantas saw a step-up from 55% capacity in June to 64% in July. We have been seeing that continue. Also incredibly positive to see some new routes also being announced as part of this recovery.
Air New Zealand's launch to New York from September, American Airlines flights to Dallas Fort Worth from October this year, and then the most recent AirAsia X operating Kuala Lumpur via Sydney from November this year. If we move to slide 21, please. A little bit reconnecting New Zealand, a little bit of back to the future, and that based on, you know, if we look at a pre-COVID environment, there were 29 airlines operating to 43 destinations. At the worst of the pandemic, there was only 12 airlines operating to 21 destinations, and to be honest, somewhat infrequently at that point in time. Now by the end of financial year 2022, there were 18 airlines to 26 destinations, so it was starting to tick up again.
As we sit here today, there are 18 airlines to 34 destinations, so even from the closure of the financial year, we are seeing that continue to build. Again, if we look at what slot filings are telling us, by the end of this calendar year, there will be 23 airlines to 37 destinations. That starts to get us back to a reasonable regional coverage across the Middle East, Asia, the Americas, and the Pacific. Moving to slide 22. One of the key pieces when we look, we are clearly in recovery, but Auckland Airport's long-term fundamentals remain strong. Although that is not without some challenges throughout recovery, which at the point when Phil starts to talk about outlook, we'll talk a little bit more about that. The drivers of growth are positive.
I've just captured and talked about those airlines that are returning to New Zealand. New Zealand does remain an attractive destination, both for its experience and landscapes and all of those things, but also the perception of being a quote-unquote "safe destination in a COVID world." There's upside in that, we believe. The downside challenges I don't think are news to anyone. Labor shortages, inflation, supply chain challenges that continue to plague the industry and to be honest, not just aviation, to be fair. The risk of slowing recovery in some markets as a result is something that we are just cognizant of. Finally, we often get asked about the view of, you know, is there a risk of any future lockdowns?
Listen, I think that future government positions on that, you can never say never, but you get a sense of that, you know, is a lower downside risk than it certainly was 12 months ago, as we looked at that. If we could move to slide 23, please. Auckland Airport is entering a period of investment, you know, and we really need to be positioning ourselves for the future and transforming Auckland Airport into a world-class travel experience. Improvements to domestic travel are our first priority. The domestic terminal is now more than half a century old, and while we've continued to reinvest in that facility to support growth in domestic travel and the needs of travelers, this infrastructure is now nearing the end of its life.
It's vitally important that Auckland and New Zealand's economy is supported, that we invest for that future in creating a domestic travel experience that Kiwis can be proud of. Our priority project is creating a combined domestic and international jet terminal at the eastern end of the existing international terminal, and this is a pathway that last year we gained support by Air New Zealand and airline representatives. Now we've undertaken some significant work over financial year 2022 on the design enabling of the new integrated domestic and international terminal, and that was really to capture on the fact that we had lower activity and lower traffic, and when you are looking clearly in the airfield, that's the ideal time to start to look at that.
Design enabling works are well advanced for the relocation of the eastern truck park, demolition of the eastern bag hold, which is underway as we speak, and the planned relocation of eastern airfield operations. Now we are currently in consultation with airlines on our detailed capital plan and look forward to sharing more with you in the coming months as that rounds out. If we can move to slide 24, please. Now what comes with an increase in activity clearly is the reopening of the airport proposition, and that is a key focus for us. Again, the experience our customers expect is when they return to travel to reconnect with family and friends, they are expecting to have the full airport experience.
We did see as Phi l had outlined the upside of retail income on the prior year, and again, that was primarily driven through the opening of borders and international retail offering return. As at the June 30th, 90% of the domestic and 45% of the international retail offering was open. Duty-free is a key component of our retail strategy, and we are currently in discussions with the existing duty-free operators regarding extensions to the current contracts while a full retender is planned for the end of FY 2024. One of the things we do know is our retailers are captive to footfall through the terminal, and we continued our support through retailers over FY 2022 as part of that with NZD 173 million of rent reductions and abatements as part of that.
We're really pleased in regards to the broader proposition in the international terminal to also reopen the Auckland Airport Strata Lounge in the international terminal from the July 1st, and have been very pleased with the demand that we had seen coming through, but particularly from that first week of opening. There is clearly a desire. If we move to slide 25, please. Earlier in the presentation, I talked about parking and how it had recovered. What we are seeing is it's recovered a slightly different profile than pre-COVID.
While revenue was down by 9%, which did reflect the lower passenger numbers, particularly in that domestic side, once the full suite of products was open and on sale from quarter four, we did see a considerable uptick with an 11% higher quarter four in FY 2022 than we did in FY 2021. What we have been seeing, particularly kicking off from July, is the recovery in domestic parking outpacing the passenger recovery with a higher propensity to drive. In the conversations I'm having with other airports, such as Dallas-Fort Worth, LAX, that is a common phenomenon, if that's what you'd like to call it. I guess the question we have is whether that is a structural change or a transitory change, which remains to be seen.
If we can move to slide 26, please. The transport hub, we closed Car Park A in June this year to make way for construction on the new 2500-bay transport hub and office development to get that underway. We're really excited about this development, and the fact that we'll provide a world-class covered facility that will provide multi-mode transport access for today, and that would be through integrating public transport, pickup drop-off, and parking. It also sets us up beautifully through to the future and whatever rapid mass transit looks like in a future state. We are on track for the pickup drop-off area to open at the end of 2023, and the remainder of the facility in the office block on that in 2024. If we can move to slide 27, please.
Commercial property, I mentioned before it's remained resilient, and we have seen continued income growth and diversification through that. Solid development pipelines continue on both new and existing tenants, including the completion of Lord Nelson and Tollman. There's five new industrial developments that are currently under construction and expected to add NZD 9 million in rental income once completed. You can see the figures there on the side, that we've seen an increase in the rent roll to NZD 127.5 million, an increase in the portfolio value for the investment property to NZD 2.9 billion. Weighted average lease term is looking good at 9.4 years and an occupancy rate of 99%. All around a very strong and solid performance. Earthworks are underway. The new retail outlet center and design continues in that space.
We are now underway in leasing conversation for that 24,000 square meter area that will have retail shops and space available with really strong interest coming from major international brands for that 100+ store center. Finally, in conjunction with Tainui Group Holdings, we recommence the build-out construction on the Te Arikinui Auckland Airport Hotel with expected completion in first half 2024, sorry. The material remains on hold in the short term. We are ready to push go on that as demand picks up again. Moving to slide 28. We remain incredibly focused on delivering to our sustainability agenda and never has it actually been more important. Now we've got the four key pillars of purpose, place, people, and community, and how we are tackling some of the material issues we see there.
We are focused on the customer and also how we deliver to wider economic contribution. We are defining our pathway to achieve our Net Zero carbon objectives, and we have set a pathway to be at Net Zero on Scope 1 and 2 by 2030. We are focused on being a responsible employer, which includes health, safety, and well-being, diversity and inclusion, and social impact. Finally, we wanna be a good neighbor. You know, including the community and Mana whenua involvement in sport is incredibly important, as part of South Auckland, and we've had some great initiatives underway that we're really delighted to be picking up momentum again as recovery starts to grab hold. Moving to slide 29, please. We are on a mission to drive down our emissions, particularly as we look at climate change.
We recently signed up to the latest version of the Climate Leaders Coalition Statement of Ambition. That pathway I talked about before, our Scope 1 and 2 emissions and reducing that to reach Net Zero by 2030, and that is aligned with the 1.5-degree trajectory. We are committed to minimizing Scope 3 emissions within our control and really starting to explore more in that space. One of the key roles we know that we can play is ensuring that the right infrastructure is in place to support the wider decarbonization of the aviation sector.
As aircraft operations make up a significant portion of Scope 3 emissions from our perspective, we need to ensure that infrastructure's in place that allows airlines to adopt low emission aircraft technologies and fuels as they become widely available in our master planning, just taking this into account. Moving to slide 30, please. I guess in rounding that out from my perspective, Auckland Airport continues to take a long-term view and remains optimistic about the future, and we are well-positioned for long-term recovery. To achieve that, however, we are focused in on the year ahead as recovery needs to continue to gain pace. The airport is part of a broader aviation ecosystem. What that means is to move forward positively together is critical to ensure we have a stable recovery.
That means reestablishing the network and leading the recovery and travel and the visitor economy. It means ensuring our products, services such as retail, transport, hotels, and the like are on offer and able to stay ahead of the demand profile that we see. As this recovery gains momentum, we will also look to pick up the pace of the investment in our infrastructure and commercial development. In summary, we are progressing our capital pathway to build a stronger Auckland Airport. We are focused on delivering a world-class customer experience and fueling our future success. With that, I'd like to hand back to Phil to walk us through the outlook and looking ahead to FY 2023, and then we'll look to open up for questions at that point. Phil?
Thanks, Carrie. As Carrie mentioned, not long before we open up to Q&A. Just a couple of slides, and we're now on slide 32. The pricing event for price reset will be determined once we finish airline con-consultation on all elements of the building block approach. This will conclude by June next year at the latest. As we discussed back in February, FY 2023 prices were frozen at FY 2022 levels, but we've also excluded the NZD 2 plus GST RRI charge that applied last financial year from October to June. The shortfall versus our target return in FY 2023 will be recovered by higher prices over the remainder of PSE4, so FY24 to 2027. At the moment, the Commerce Commission is reviewing the input methodologies. These underpin the aeronautical information disclosure regime.
Our main argument in our submissions is that the commission should repeat the exercise that it's done the last couple of times and update its asset beta estimates using the last 10 years of data. We've looked at that would lift asset beta back in target return quite appreciably. Finally, before we open up to Q&A, looking at slide 33, this is our guidance for underlying profit after tax and CapEx for FY 2023. We're forecasting underlying profit to be somewhere between NZD 50 million and NZD 100 million in FY 2023. This assumes at the midpoint that the domestic PACs average 80%, circa 80% of FY 2019 levels over the year, and international PACs average 60% of FY 2019 levels.
Now, this, admittedly is starting to look perhaps a bit conservative, with July domestic PAX at 85% and international at 50%. As Carrie mentioned earlier, we're seeing that the airlines are filing circa 70% of international capacity over the Christmas break. This guidance also assumes a big lift in depreciation expense in FY 2023 to somewhere between NZD 145 million and NZD 150 million. This is mainly due to the significant uplift in our buildings revaluation. As at June 30th, there was a NZD 460 million uplift, so that does flow through to depreciation going forward. Of course, that's a non-cash expense.
It also assumes a significant lift in interest expense as we undertake the CapEx and begin to rebuild our debt portfolio, somewhere between NZD 65 million and NZD 75 million for FY 2023. We're also guiding FY 2023 CapEx of between NZD 600 million and NZD 700 million. The expected composition of this CapEx is set out in some detail on page 19 of the financial report for 2022. With that, Carrie and I are happy to respond now to any questions from listeners.
As a reminder, to ask a question, you need to press star one one on your telephone. That's star one one. Please stand by. We'll compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Andy Bowley from Forsyth Barr. Your line is open.
Thanks, operator. Good morning, Carrie. Good morning, Phil. Thanks for the presentation. Now a couple of questions from me, the first of which is around the demand outlook. Appreciate the comments you just made, Phil, in terms of, you know, potentially being slightly conservative on your guidance, but also conscious of the slot filings comments you made earlier, Carrie. So keen to hear what the slot filings and conversations that you've had with airlines are telling you about early calendar year 2023. You know, in essence, on slide 20, does that blue line continue to rise through calendar 2023? Or do we see a kind of a flattening or plateauing of that recovery through late summer before picking up again later on in the year?
Thanks, Andy, and lovely to speak with you again. Absolutely. We saw the uptick in July. It then kind of slowed down. Another uptick in October as we head into the peak season. What we are seeing through to June next year based, again, on slot filings, and I do reinforce that caution. You know, it's potentially getting close to 80%-85% in terms of that. The reason I caution that is, again, it's only based on what we're seeing in slot filings. It is based on anecdotal conversations. Airlines generally are keen to return to New Zealand.
There is this capacity piece, which is a little bit, I think Phil was alluding to, and the conservatism as well, is that there isn't necessarily a shortage of demand at this stage, but there is potentially the challenge of the capacity to meet that, whether it be aircraft, whether it be pilot, cabin crew resourcing or otherwise. As we sit here, you know, there is the potential to be 80%-85% by the end of this financial year.
That for international PAX or international capacity?
That is international capacity. Yes, sorry. In the domestic front, again, relatively flat. It kind of climbs to the December number and then, at this point, based on what we're seeing, holding there. But again, you know, whether there's any upside on that remains to be seen.
Maybe then, you know, if we could just reconcile that to the guidance assumption of 6.2 million PAX international. How do we get to that? I recognize this is quite fluid in terms of the underlying environment currently, but how do you get to 6.2 million?
Yeah, I'll jump in there, Andy. So that's 60% of pre-COVID international PAX. We're starting the year at 50%. That's where July was. If we get to 80%, let's say 80% by the end of the year, that's 130 divided by two gives you 65% recovery. Yes, it's a bit conservative, but only to the extent of 65%.
Sorry, Andy, you're getting both of us have a go at it, you know, and that's what was ultimately what we are seeing play out globally. You're seeing it in the U.S. and otherwise as airlines again put capacity in and then potentially are pulling it out. You're seeing that playing out considerably in the U.S. as well as Australia and Europe. Again, that conservatism is. There's a whole bunch of unknowns there. What we have seen play out in the last three months is something that wasn't lost on us.
Great. No, thanks. Appreciate that. Now, second area of questions around CapEx. We've got the guidance of NZD 600-NZD 700 million. I recognize that's quite a step up in terms of what we've historically spent here. I think the peak in recent times or ever is around NZD 400 million. I guess the question here is, do you have the capacity in terms of your own internal resources and external contracts as to spend that level of CapEx? And how confident are you in terms of that guidance?
Yeah, thanks, Andy. From my perspective, on a planning basis, we are confident in that a lot of planning has gone in. As you recall, some of the work was actually starting to gain momentum prior to COVID and we needed to push pause on that. Understanding size and scale and what was required to do that. The planning has been in on that front. You know, and of course, we also have the split across what would be aero activity as opposed to non-aero activity as part of it. We're entering in on the basis that we're feeling relatively comfortable in that space.
Great. Thanks, guys.
Sorry about that. We'll move on for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Wade Gardiner from Craigs Investment Partners. Your line is open.
Hi, guys. A couple of questions from me. Just in relation to the guidance, can you give a bit of color in two areas there? One, what you're envisaging or what you agreed with the retailers in terms of ongoing rent relief. And secondly, just in terms of the OpEx recovery, I mean, I think it was last year or maybe it was the year before, you'd given an OpEx number of, you know, sort of around NZD 170-odd million. I mean, is that number still valid or are we gonna build to something like that over time? Or is that affected by inflation and therefore potentially higher?
Kia ora, Wade. Nice to speak with you. Absolutely. I'll kick things off in regards to the question around retail, sorry. I'm
Retail.
Retail, yes. Those conversations very much in line with, it's twofold. One, obviously, I alluded earlier to the conversation we're having with duty-free around potential extensions for those so that we can go for the full re-tenders, so that is in play. As far as relief, we are talking very much in line with PAX recovery. You know, it's kind of from our perspective, not a zero to 60 game on the basis that we are seeing a gradual uptick. We are engaging with that transition from what has been relief into aligning as that recovery's coming into play. We expect that to continue.
Particularly we're sitting here as at today at 61% of retail in the national-international terminal being open, which is ahead of demand, which is at 50%-55%. We expect that to continue. We want to stay ahead, obviously of the capacity. In terms of the OpEx pace, Phil Neutze, do you wanna put that up in terms of previous conversations and guidance on that?
Yes. Thanks, Carrie. I'll just touch a little bit more on retail as well. You know, if you look at duty-free, we're in the process, as Carrie mentioned, of agreeing an extension until we complete the longer term duty-free re-tender, which is likely to take place in the second half of calendar 2024. Ballpark, where that's likely to land is we won't have the same level of MAG on a per PAX basis that we had pre-COVID. It might be off 15%-20% of the heydays pre-COVID, so you can run those numbers through, Wade. On OpEx, yeah, our FY 2019 result was circa NZD 190 million. We have experienced a lot of inflation since then, and we've battled that through with the most recent budget round.
You're probably safe to assume that OpEx for FY 2023 will be circa NZD 200 million.
200?
Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. Next question. Just on slide 17, you're talking about the debt covenants. Can you just remind us, you've still got the waivers in place. Can you... What do you need to do to get back to dividend paying? My understanding was the waivers need to go, or is it a case of getting to a certain level of interest cover, which I think you're already sort of, you know, well above where those waivers are?
Yeah, good question. Thanks, Wade. Wade, I think everybody needs to understand that we're not under any covenant waivers now. We're out of that. In the quid pro quo for negotiating more relaxed covenants back in February is that the dividend block was extended. It was previously to December 31st 2021. It's been extended to December 31st 2022. There won't be a dividend for the first half of FY 2023. The first dividend that we could pay would be for the second half. The other minor qualification that was a result of those negotiations with the banks is an absolute block on dividends being paid from anything other than underlying profit.
For example, let's say we had underlying profit of NZD 100 million but reported profit of NZD 500 million, we wouldn't be able to pay a NZD 500 million dividend. We wouldn't do that anyway because that's not our dividend policy. Our dividend policy's always been based on underlying profit. That restriction will continue forward until we start to deliver EBITDA interest coverage that exceeds 3.0 x, or by December 2024, whichever is the earliest.
Okay. Yeah, that's all from me, I think. Thank you.
Thanks, Wade.
One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Amit Kanwatia from Jefferies. Your line is open.
Good morning, all. Just a couple of questions from me. Firstly, on the outlook, now I've appreciated you provided a range of NZD 50-NZD 100 million of underlying profit, and I think your passenger forecast is pretty specific, international at 60%, domestic at 80%. Can you talk to if the profit range is, I mean, if the passenger forecast, I mean, what does that equate to as far as your profit is concerned? Would that be at the midpoint, low point, or, I mean, maybe high point?
Yeah. Thank you. I'll get you to pick that up, Phil.
Yes. That's the midpoint of the range.
Right.
I'll come back on this call with just an estimate of sensitivity to a ±10% swing in PAX and NACTO versus that. I just need to lay my hands on it, but I'll come back to that shortly.
Okay. That's all right. Just again, I mean, thinking about the retail business, and I think you called out 45% of international retail is open, 90% domestic is open, and again, passenger forecast is at 60%. You're highlighting some MAG pressures on retail, but what's the level of retail store openings you see through the year on an average? Would it be at 50%, 60%, or can it get closer to 90%, 80%, 90% through the year?
Yeah. Thank you. I'll start with that. Some of those numbers I was referring to was as at June 30. That has continued to increase. We are currently sitting at 61% of the international terminal open and over 95% of the domestic retail is open. That's as at August. Our expectation, we know that we've got further stores opening this month and they really continue to do so. My expectation is, you know, like I said, we want to stay ahead of passenger demand. You know, I'd like to think that we'd be sitting, all things being equal at kinda 80% by the end of the calendar year, which again, that is keeping us ahead of that 70% capacity that we're expecting.
We can say as far as retail lease occupancy as at June 30, internationally was at 94%. We've had good occupancy remain. We've had a couple of new stores start. For many of the retailers, the playback to us is really it's a matter of dealing with the labor shortage. We're a 20-hour a day, seven-day a week operation. For some operators, they can open for restricted hours, for example. Some are opening for one shift until they hire more staff to get to two shifts and otherwise. I am optimistic that we will continue to see the openings tick up. What I probably can't give you just because it's not something that we can specifically control or influence is an absolute date.
I would be comfortable saying targeting 80% by the end of this calendar year would be the space I would see us in.
Perhaps I'll just jump in with that sensitivity. In fact, our guidance range reflects a sensitivity of ±10% in both passenger numbers and net tariff.
Yeah. Okay. That's very useful. Just, I mean, a couple more questions. If I think about the CapEx, I mean, you've said CapEx is NZD 600 million-NZD 700 million for fiscal 2023. When was the last time you spent this kind of CapEx? I couldn't see that. Secondly, if I think about aeronautical pricing negotiations, PSE4, and I think in the past you said your big ticket items like domestic terminal as well as the transport hub, I think that's included in PSE5. Can you give us a sense of what's the kind of CapEx that could be included in the PSE4 pricing? I know. I appreciate it's under negotiation, but just kind of broader sense.
I think you had two questions there. I think the first question, if I caught that right, was to say when is the last time we'd invested this volume of CapEx. To my understanding, whilst I'm new kid on the block, some of my understanding is we haven't. The highest is probably historically been NZD 400 on that pace. We are moving above historic in that space. In terms of your question around PSE4 and what is included in that pricing, Phil, are you able to give some insights into the PSE4 versus PSE5?
Yeah.
Some of these projects, obviously we're commencing construction, and one is around delivery versus actually.
Yes. That's right. The likes of the integrated domestic terminal will not be in the RAB in PSE4. As we've indicated, that's a billion-dollar plus project. There is a range of airfield work, particularly aircraft stands, that will be delivered progressively over that time. There's ongoing roading network CapEx. There's quite a range of utilities, so power, gas, water, that will also be included there. There's extensive renewals, particularly in relation to the existing domestic terminal that we need to, you know, up the service quality from that asset. There'll be significant CapEx in that asset over that time as well, and there are a number of other areas.
Right. Just lastly, just if I can ask on the property business. I think you're highlighting some rental increase pricing growth in the property business during the year. I just wanted to get a sense of what's the kind of pricing growth you're expecting for fiscal 2023 on the property side.
The rent, I'm struggling for the terminology actually at the moment. Rent roll, sorry, gives you an indication. If you compare rent roll to annual rental, it shows you the rent that we're expecting from property developments that are signed up as of today. Now, we expect that momentum to continue, as well. During FY 2023, we've got an active pipeline, so we'll add to that further, but that gives you a bit of a sense of that.
Fair enough. That's all. Yep.
Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Steele from Jarden. Your line is open.
Good morning, everyone. Just the first one for me is on your cost base. I was hoping you could clarify what the inflation assumption is that's implicit in the NZD 200 million of expected OpEx for next year. Are there any key areas of cost pressure that you'd like to call out?
Yeah. Well, actually, since then, most of those are based on costs as of today, which of course has got three or four years of inflation versus FY 2019 already embodied in that. We're using to the extent that we use CPI, it's well above the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's target, so it's 4%-5%. What was the second part of your question?
Any key areas of
Oh, yeah.
cost pressure within the cost base.
Yes. Yeah. The areas that we're expecting the greatest increase in OpEx in FY 2023 are personnel costs. Naturally, we're rebuilding the team. We talked about being at least slightly ahead of the curve with our resourcing versus expected PAX recovery. Repairs and maintenance, we continue to move to a more proactive stance there, particularly taking advantage of having lower PAX numbers through the airport at the moment. Insurance continues to tick up. Rates, that's a big one for us. We're budgeting on a NZD 11 million increase in rates for FY 2023. That's versus a NZD 15 million rate expense in FY 2022. That's absolutely huge. The likes of outsourced operations is reasonably significant.
That's management of our car parking, which we're progressively opening land side busing, and that includes some bus transfers with closed Car Park A. A lot of people park in Car Parks D and E. There's a bus shuttle service from there to the international terminal, as well as park and ride, and we're restarting Strata Lounge. Those things come through outsourced operations. That's all in the airport management maintenance and operations line that you see. Other areas, marketing and promotions, we're starting to dial that up a bit again, then ongoing increases in technology costs.
Great. Thanks, Phil . Just one in terms of the operations of the business into 2023. Are you seeing any emerging operating constraints or bottlenecks? You have noted bringing personnel costs in ahead of recovery. I guess, what other actions are you taking to avoid some of the capacity constraints that have been evident in some of your major offshore peers?
Yeah, thanks, Andrew. I'll take that. I think additionally, I mean, part of what Phil was alluding to is we have consciously leaned into staying ahead of the curve in regards to what we anticipated demand to be. I think thus far that's served us well. While it hasn't been perfect, we have avoided some of the challenges that we've seen play out globally. We're continuing on that trajectory. You know, some of the actions we've taken, you know, I think it was two or three weeks ago, we had a job fair, which was not only to ensure that we can remain ahead of the curve of our recruitment requirements across operations, infrastructure and the like, but also the wider airport precinct and the ecosystem.
Because we can have all the stuff in the world, if ground handler is down to a border agency down or airline's down, we're no further ahead. We continue to work really closely with our aviation partners in that space, and thus far it is tracking well. Tracking well, you know, we've had things such as coming out of the back of that job fair. 3,500 people go through that day and playback from a number of those partners that they have hired as a result of that. At this point we're positive, but as the OpEx figures show, we are trying to ensure that we're not reacting and that we are proactive in that space.
Great. Thank you, Carrie. Just the last one for me, I guess it's potentially more of a clarification regarding the comments on MAGs earlier. Is it fair to assume that from what you said, that MAGs will be turning, effectively turning back on in 2023, but at a level lower than where they were pre-COVID at 15%-20%. Is that right, Phil?
Yes.
Excellent. That's all for me. Thank you.
Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Alexander Smith at Morningstar. Your line is open.
Thank you. Just thanks for the information around those capacity constraints and how you're sort of dealing with them. I was just interested in a bit more detail on that. Perhaps if you could comment on, you know, how much the. In terms of the most pressing capacity sort of challenges, is that more related to kind of global issues such as, you know, number of pilots, number of airplanes, that there is sort of a global capacity constraint or is it, are the most pressing constraints the, you know, the local ones that can be solved in Auckland? Yeah, can you comment on that?
Yeah. Thanks, Alexander. I mean, the issues certainly are global. We're seeing and feeling that. I think as far as managing. You know, locally, it is certainly the priority. You know, you look and quite often airlines will use its, you know, Air New Zealand. The home carrier, so they'll use third-party providers, for example, at outstations and are managing through that. So whilst it is an issue that's bubbling away, it is more of a local piece. But as airlines are launching out of NZ and things like the ground handling capability and really just volume through the airport, whether that be Auckland Airport staff or border agency staff. So on balance, I would say the focus is primarily local.
Hence why things like the job fair were important to say how can we give that a bit of a shot in the arm to move that along on what we know is quite a tight labor market environment at the moment.
Okay, thanks.
Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Nick Daish from RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.
Oh, thank you. Morning, guys. Thanks for the call. Just a couple of questions from me. The first one just on dividends and fully recognizing that you're obviously having to balance an expensive CapEx program against the possibility of a return to dividends. I suppose two questions. Do you mind just reminding us exactly of your dividend payout or your method of paying out dividends? And then separately, I suppose knowing what you do know, what your sense is on the possibility of a return to dividend payments.
Yes, Nick, I'll cover that. The current policy is to pay circa 100% of underlying profit after tax. That excludes any revaluations that might bolster or reduce our reported profit. In simple terms, it means that what we can pay is profit, but it means that depreciation is effectively held to fund some of our CapEx. It's not a cash flow type approach that Sydney Airport used to follow, for example. A return to dividend, yes, a return to dividend payments is expected. As I mentioned, there's an absolute block until after December this year. The first payment would be our final dividend that gets paid in October, so that'd be October next year. The board has asked management to look into dividend policy.
Are there any lessons learned around COVID, for example? We will be looking at that. I'd note that we've previously had a dividend reinvestment plan that's reinvested 20%-25% of dividends. Pre-COVID our total profit was NZD 275 million, so that was our maximum dividend payout in the year. You can see that tweaking at the margin, that dividend policy won't free up an awful lot of extra cash versus our forecast CapEx going forward. Our guidance of NZD 600 million-NZD 700 million for FY 2023 is a sensible basis to be thinking longer term at the moment until we complete our CapEx consultation.
You can see that dividend policy can't make an awful lot of difference there, but there is a possibility that the board might seek to just scale that back slightly. I don't know. We've got to work through that.
Yeah. Fantastic. That's very helpful. Thank you. Then separately, just on your rent roll, I think you mentioned that your average lease is 9.4 years. Do correct me if I'm wrong. I guess my question would just be how regular your rent prices go up or how often they are reviewed. I would imagine that they do inflate perhaps with escalation. I'm just interested around the mechanics there, please.
Yeah, absolutely. Again, in general, I mean, again, each contract is individual, but I would say generally two, but we might have some that got to three, four years, for example. I would say two would be the most usual.
Sure. Fantastic. Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Marcus Curley from UBS. Your line is open.
Good afternoon. Can we just start with Phil, with the CapEx on the non-aeronautical side? Could you give us any color around the total size for the transport hub and the retail outlet which are probably driving the CapEx, you know, for this year and next year?
Transport hub, in ballpark figures, circa NZD 300 million. There's also a significant office development that's part of that. The Mānawa Bay outlet center, circa NZD 200 million.
Phil, how much would you be doing this year of that?
The forecast delivery of that is mid-2024 for both of them. For FY 2023, we've got about NZD 340 million across property and car parking, including the transport hub in Mānawa Bay.
Great. Just an extension of that, you know, when you look at your car park capacity, obviously there was a bit of news around, you know, being at maximum capacity there. When I look at the accounts, your public car park's down 23%, you know, given what you're having to do on, you know, the construction. How should we think about car parking revenue into this year coming? You know, do you think it's gonna be constrained, because of a lack of capacity?
Well, I might start, and Phil might have a view on that as well. I guess from my perspective, I mean, it is something that was that comment I made before about this propensity to drive, which is the profile is quite different to what it was in a pre-COVID environment market. We're certainly watching that and trying to dig around from a insights perspective to get a handle on that being structural versus transitionary. Yes, with construction underway, we're very cognizant of sequencing and trying to minimize the impact that we have to car parking and the time that has because it impacts a combination of clearly the customer experience in giving them options as well as the revenue impact.
It is something that the instruction teams are working through as part of the development and how we minimize that impact.
Thanks, Carrie. Big picture with, of course, we're early in the passenger recovery, so even with that car park bay taken out, we've arguably got surplus capacity at the moment. For FY 2023, we're not expecting capacity constraints to limit that growth in car parking revenue. In fact, we would expect to see both domestic and international car parking revenue increase by more than the passenger increase. That just reflects the trend we're seeing at the moment, with a greater propensity to driving your own cars, I guess, related to COVID as opposed to ride share or taxis.
Okay. The problems you had with the car parks being full, that's been resolved?
Yeah, I mean, there has been some issues at peak, and the teams continue to work on that. I actually haven't checked in with them if that's fully resolved. There might still be some challenges. Of course, this is a view across the entire year, so there might be some times that there's some issues. I know the team is looking for solutions there.
I can comment on that.
Okay.
That, yes, there was a particular issue for school holidays, so it's not a constant issue. July school holidays were definitely a bumper school holiday period and something where we had issues. The team is working to say how do we manage and level load some of those peaks, but is work in progress.
Okay. Just on the airline recovery, I just wondered if you can talk a little bit to, you know, the airlines that haven't returned, particularly outside of the Chinese ones for obvious reasons. You know, would you call out any airlines which, you know, you think, you know, at risk or, you know, or problematic at the moment? You know, I just wondered if you could talk a little bit to that?
Yeah, most certainly. It's building slowly but surely. I mean, we've got things actually. Emirates recently was talking about the reintroduction of the A380 from later this year. We are seeing those come back into play, which is fantastic. You've already highlighted the China market and the fact that put that to one side. We are seeing additional for some of the capacity, for example, that hasn't come back on as yet would be Virgin. Virgin has positioned themselves very clearly in focusing on the domestic Australian market as their primary focus. The view of whether they would come back to New Zealand beyond, for example, Queenstown, which I think they've indicated is limited.
You've got some other airlines like Samoa and the Pacific Islands that isn't returning to flying. Outside kind of a handful of those elements, in the China piece, we are seeing the desired return. We are seeing new announcements like AirAsia X, like American Airlines. We've had United reconfirm the plan to recommence San Francisco. For some airlines it is timing, clearly getting into the summer peak. For some, they've been really clear, saying, "As soon as we have the aircraft capacity or, for example, pilot capacity, our intention is to return." We just don't necessarily have absolute timeframes for some of those. Outside, and actually I can't remember the slide number. Sorry, Marcus.
There is a slide that has the map with the back to the future one that I was talking to, which down the bottom I believe does highlight the four or five airlines. At this point, we don't have a clear path of whether they will be returning again or not.
Okay, great. That's handy. And then just finally, sorry, Phil, to sort of go back on this. You know, so your comments around retail and the MAX coming back, you know, one interpretation of what you said was, you know, yeah, that we take the peak level of retail revenue, which was NZD 225, take 20% off it, and that's sort of where you're heading quite quickly if the MAX are coming back. I would assume that's not quite what you're referring to.
Yeah, I'm referring specifically to the duty-free component of that. As you know, we're still in discussions on how we extend the existing duty-free leases until we complete the full tender, which will be late calendar 2024. What I'm saying is for duty-free, we should not expect that we'll be back to the same income per pax that we experienced back in FY 2019. It's likely to be off somewhere between 15%-20%.
That is just in price. Sorry, Carrie.
Of course, the question is long term. The reason why we are deferring that retender is 'cause there's so much uncertainty right now. We would be hopeful that the recovery from COVID is way more advanced by the time that we undertake that tender and because also the intention is to move to a single operator when we complete that full retender. It will be a lot stronger position than what we're just talking about over the next couple of years.
Outside of duty-free, the other specialty retailer, you know, recovery will be more in line with passengers?
We are working that through. I don't have it at my fingertips. I think that's a fair assumption.
Could you give us any color on, you know, pre-COVID what duty-free was a percentage of retail?
Yeah, roughly 2/3.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm not showing any further questions in the queue. I'd like to turn the call back over for any closing remarks.
Fantastic. Well, thank you all. We certainly, Phil and I, appreciate you taking time out of your day to allow us to share FY 2022 results. As I said, we sit here with a long-term view. We're incredibly optimistic about the future and are looking forward to that gaining momentum as we make our way through FY 2023. Have a fantastic day too, everyone that's joined us, and we look forward to connecting again with you soon.
Cheers.