Melbourne Airport is making more money from car parking than any other major airport in Australia.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) annual airport monitoring report shows car parking margins remain “very high” across the country, with Melbourne Airport reporting the greatest return, making 73.2 cents profit from every dollar paid for car parking for the 12 months to June 30 last year.
The lowest return on sales for parking revenue was 63.7 cents for Perth Airport.
The ACCC report shows Melbourne Airport’s car park revenue increased by 14.8 per cent to $147 million, the highest any monitored airport has ever reported.
ACCC chairman Rod Sims said being sole suppliers of car parking at airports means the four monitored airports (Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Brisbane) continue to earn significant profits from car parking.
“The high profit margins of the airports indicate that they do not face much competitive pressure,” he said.
But he said savvy motorists were increasingly taking advantage of the discount rates available online. The ACCC found that consumers could save up to 66.5 per cent when booking in advance for longer periods of time.
‘Catering to demand’
Melbourne Airport spokeswoman Carly Dixon said more than half the people who come to the airport do so by car.
“We need to cater for this demand through the provision of airport parking, particularly for peak travel and holiday periods,” she said.
“We offer a variety of competitively priced and quality car parking products, in addition to the variety of other ground transport services, including SkyBus, taxi, hire cars, public and private buses and off-airport parking.”
Melbourne Airport reported the highest passenger growth of the four airports, at 3.6 per cent. This was driven by increases in international passenger numbers, which surged by 7.7 per cent.
The airport’s service standards were given a “satisfactory” rating, which was equal lowest with Sydney Airport.
A record $484 million was spent on building a domestic terminal, premium lounge transfer facilities and extra bag check-in points.
