Auckland Airport says international aviation recovery could be more than three years away, systems needed to live with Covid-19

Auckland Airport says it doesn't expect an international aviation recovery for more than three years and has called for urgent work to allow the country to live with the risk of Covid-19. Chairman Patrick Strange said the past year was the toughest in the company's 54-year history and the future was uncertain. "Our financial performance is strongly linked to international arrivals and departures, and while there is no doubt that international travel will recover, it's not clear how quickly," he told the company's annual shareholders' meeting. That high degree of uncertainty prompted the company to suspend underlying earnings guidance for the 2021 financial year. It will reassess this decision at its interim results in February. "While both IATA and Standard & Poor's have forecast a full recovery of international travel in approximately three years, at this stage we continue to think it prudent to take a more conservative approach," Strange said. "We believe a full recovery could well take longer than three years. But we're hopeful that domestic travel will return to normal within two years. And we believe that we will see quarantine-free travel both ways across the Tasman and to the Pacific Islands earlier." CE Adrian Littlewood said that the Government and the private sector needed to work together with urgency in order to chart a path for New Zealand in a post-pandemic world. "In a way that keeps our communities safe, but also allows families to reconnect and jobs, tourism and our economy to recover. We think New Zealand needs to develop a truly capable domestic health security system that will allow us to live with the ongoing risk of Covid-19, while ensuring our country can stay safe, and stay connected to the world."<br/>