WCC website, 23 April 2020

The same day Queenstown Lakes District councillors voted 9-2 to agree to a caveated pre-Covid 19 statement of intent for Queenstown Airport Corporation, complete with financial forecasts acknowledged to be irrelevant, their cohorts in Wellington voted to provide shareholder support to the capital’s airport.

Relevance to Queenstown? First, it shows Wellington Council is going on the hook for a capital injection into Wellington airport. This could well happen for us. If QLDC can’t provide an injection and it has to come from another party, this would effectively dilute QLDC’s shareholding.

WCC’s capital injection will be in the form of convertible notes, a hybrid form of capital that starts off as debt but can be converted to equity which, if it were coming from another party, would dilute WCC’s shareholding.

To get this funding, Wellington Airport would have had to provide an initial damage assessment and business survival plan to its shareholders. QAC should have done the same already. Survival scenarios would be the basis of any SOI written now, July or October, particularly as it relates to the next 12 months.

LINK to article here

And here is a short piece on Covid’s global impact on airports, creating zombies from previous behemoths: LINK to article