Australian skiers and snowboarders packing transtasman planes have underpinned a 25% boost to Queenstown Airport Corporation's after-tax profit, lifting it to a record $8.3million for the year.
The 19% boost to profit delivered the largest-ever dividend of $5.2million to 75.1% shareholder the Queenstown Lakes District Council ($3.9million) and 24.9% shareholder Auckland International Airport ($1.3million).
Queenstown Lakes District Council's share equated to about $168 per rateable property in the district.
Domestic passengers also aided the airport.
Air New Zealand's 110,000 additional seats between Auckland and Queenstown lifted passenger numbers 6% to more than 1 million for the first time.
Total revenue increased 13% to $24.8million, operating earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation increased by $1.4million to $16.6million, while after-tax profit rose 25%, from $6.6million to $8.3million.
Airport corporation chairman John Gilks said he was ''very grateful'' for the ongoing support of Air New Zealand, Jetstar, Qantas, and Virgin Australia, and their global airline partners.
International passenger numbers rose 29% to 398,000 while domestic passengers rebounded to 1,001,000.
Mr Gilks said total passenger movements through the airport increased 12%, to set a record of 1.4million passengers for the 12 months to June.
''The main contributors to this increase were strong transtasman passenger growth, buoyed by the recommencement of Jetstar's Gold Coast service, and domestic passenger numbers hitting the one million mark for the first time,'' he said.
Mr Gilks issued one cautionary note, saying while he was confident about the sustainability of transtasman growth, anticipating ''strong future passenger growth'', it might not reach the record levels struck in 2014-15.
The overall revenue increase was driven by strong passenger volumes, greater retail spend per passenger, more car parking and improved commercial leasing revenues, Mr Gilks said.
To manage growth demands the corporation had completed several key infrastructure projects during the year, he said.
Those included a public car park expansion and a new international terminal for winter 2015 which has doubled the size of the airport's international operations.
New commercial space being taken up during the past year, included Airspresso Cafe and Bar, the Manaia Passenger Lounge and TravelPharm.
Key growth opportunities for the corporation included evening flights and the possible creation of a new aviation precinct.
