S&P reports Asia-Pacific airports rode through disruptions

The grounding and reduced capacity of a domestic carrier, and a protracted industrial relations dispute have caused a dip in domestic traffic at some of the rated Australian airports.

In addition, the recent earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan continue to have a dampening impact on passenger numbers at Christchurch and Narita airports, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said in a report published last week.

“Offsetting the drop in domestic traffic at some of the rated Australian airports was healthy international passenger growth during the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2011,” Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Danielle Kremzer said.

“Overall passenger growth in Australia has been robust, supporting our investment-grade ratings on the airports. We believe the disruptions are unlikely to have a lasting impact on domestic services.

Playing a greater role would be the impact of economic conditions on passenger demand and airline capacity over the near term.”

We placed Christchurch and Narita airports on negative outlooks because we believe their business risk profiles could suffer in the long term due to the lingering impact of the earthquakes on passenger numbers.

For Hong Kong International Airport, we expect a soft landing to occur due to the sluggish global economy. China’s continued strong growth will further provide reasonable growth in passenger traffic at the airport.

That said, the global volatility spreading from the U.S. and Europe could depress consumer sentiment in Asia-Pacific.

If consumer sentiment were to weaken, it could adversely affect passenger traffic at the rated airports.

Nevertheless, our current view of Asia-Pacific’s sound economic growth means that the uncertainty affecting other parts of the globe would have limited immediate impact on rated airports. Furthermore, rated airports have refinanced most of their upcoming debt maturities.

On the other hand, the changing low-cost carrier market in Asia Pacific, regulatory developments, and major capital works underway would have a more immediate impact on the credit quality of the region’s rated airports, in our opinion.

The report titled, Asia-Pacific Airports Are Still Buoyant Despite Some Disruptions And Uncertain Global Economy”, is available on Global Credit Portal.