By Justin Pierce and Tim O’Shannassy

Acknowledgement

Introduction

It is 10:00 AM when Geoff Culbert, Sydney Airport Holdings CEO and Trevor Gerber, Chairman grab a coffee and wander down the empty terminal.  The Red Rooster outlet, shuttered closed and silent, provides the two leaders with a much-needed source of conversations.  “Poor people, their livelihoods!”, quips Culbert.  Gerber, who immediately remembers that Culbert’s own daughter, Penny, worked at Red Rooster, only manages a non-verbal “mmm!”  Culbert thinks he missed the mark, but Gerber’s heart is already breaking.

“What are we going to do, Trev?”, Culbert begs of Gerber.  “Geoff, settle down.  We already got the money from the bond raising and we have a huge amount of goodwill in the community with our rental relief.  Penny will be back working there soon enough.”  Gerber does his best to reassure Culbert.  Culbert wastes no time: “It’s not about me, it’s the lockdowns, the mental health concerns, and now the government is making us do additional security measures—the team is almost ready to crack under the pressure.  I’m not sure how much longer we can do it.”

The global pandemic and the lockdowns that accompanied it have wracked profit margins and ruined livelihoods the world over, and Sydney Airport is no exception.  Culbert and Gerber worked exceptionally hard to protect the balance sheet and, importantly, the cash position.  The share market responded favourably, with Sydney Airport Holdings (ASX:SYD) share price up 30 per cent year-to-date.

Gerber looks back at Culbert with an earnest expression: “Geoff, don’t you see, you already have done it and you did a sterling job.  It’s now about how we get the business, the community, and the travelling public back.  You have quite a few challenges to conquer before that can happen.  Have you thought about how you’re going to pull that one off?”

External Environment

The recent twenty-year anniversary of the Twin Towers disaster coincided with the US and its allies’ withdrawal from Afghanistan (Gerson, 2021).  Although the Taliban has quickly swooped back in to assume power and form government in Afghanistan, President Biden, and Prime Ministers Johnson and Morrison have hailed the US’s so-called ‘longest war’ a success (Scarr, 2021).  This, while abjured in the media (Grattan, 2021), continues while high-profile Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith, VC, MG continues to pursue defamation damages against a collection of Australian media outlets and journalists (McKinnell, 2021).  That aviation catastrophe and the protracted war it catalysed continue to have far reaching consequences!

The tragic events on 11 September 2001 in New York, ushered in a new dawn of aviation security policy throughout the world (cf. US Government Publishing Office, 2011).  In its wake, policy emphasised the role of airport ground staff in screening passengers (Sydney Airport, 2020) and justified the Australian Federal Police continuing to have a strong presence at all major airports (AFP, n.d.).  Beyond Australia, security requirements at ports around the world have tightened (Koenig, 2021) while, at the same time, people who work at them continue to demand better conditions (Marin-Guzman, 2021).

The Australian triple-level system of government and its operation could be (and often is) described as conservative; Australians refer themselves colloquially as the ‘nanny state’ (Cater, 2021).  Australia’s States’ and Territories’ responses to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic has been a protracted series of lockdowns and restrictions to movement (Saul, Scott, Crabb, Majumdar, Coghlan & Hellard, 2020).  Other worldly jurisdictions responded with less austerity but also accepted much higher mortality rates (Mao, 2021).  The nanny state also loomed as the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) stretched its talons and claimed the resignation of then Premier Gladys Berejiklian (Knaus, 2021).

Midst the lockdowns, which numbered 264 days in Victoria, workers were stood down, and domestic cash flows slowed.  Small business owners struggled, and many were forced into administration.  The Federal, State and Territory governments responded with economic stimulus packages, known as JobSeeker and JobKeeper (Knight, 2021).  These were scaled back as vaccination targets were reached (Hitch, 2021).  Despite the ostensible economic impact caused by the governments’ response to the coronavirus pandemic—fuelled by the media cycle that emphasised the largest contraction since the 1930s (RBA, 2021a)—economic indicators for Australians remain among the strongest in the world.

The following table illustrates this clearly.

Table 1: Australian Wealth Indicators, December 2020 (ABS, 2021a)

Further economic indicators show a strong position for Australia.  The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is maintaining the official cash rate at 0.1%, with inflation at 3.8% for the June 2021 quarter (RBA, 2021b).  Additionally, wage rates grew 1.7% and households were saving at a rate of 9.7% of their incomes (RBA, 2021b).  Indeed, when compared to the same quarter before the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, Australian economic indicators have been very, very strong.

The following table illustrates the national economic indicators.

Table 2: Australian Economic Indicators, June 2019 v. June 2021 (RBA, 2021a)

Australians are known to have an egalitarian culture (Kapferer & Morris, 2003) and although officially an individualist nation with low power distance (cf. Hofstede, 2001), they are also known to stick together through a crisis (Brent, 2020).  The imposed lockdowns forced Australian families to juggle between schooling, working, and leisure time all spent at home.  Mandatory masks while outside, and a new term ‘social distancing’ grew into the lexicon as Australians became more familiar with their Premiers, who presented at daily press conferences (Davis, 2021).  In the same vein as celebrating its worst military defeat every year on ANZAC day, the Australian sense of humour grew to mocking its collective lockdown ‘lot.’  Memes of Victorian Premier Dan Andrews (and others) circulated through social media (Cartwright, 2021) and children’s entertainer, Jimmy Rees, grew a large following as he relieved tension with his ‘Meanwhile in Australia’ series of video posts.

Still, the lengthy period of lockdowns eventually took their toll as the incidences of mental health and domestic violence grew (Abbott, 2021).  Government television advertising featured CoViD-19 positive people gasping for breath, or otherwise gravely ill (Mogul, 2021) while the supply of vaccinations lagged the rest of the developed world.  Lockdown fatigue emerged with a growing anti-vaccine sentiment, leading to violent demonstrations in Melbourne and Sydney (Jose & Duran, 2021).  The media and Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) falsely reported infiltration by right-wing extremist groups (Thomas, 2021), a clear deception engendered to distance them from the anarchistic protestors.

Purchases moved online in droves and the delivery infrastructure strained under the demand.  People were using online shopping in place of other types of entertainment (Rajan, 2020).  In non-pandemic times, Australians are sociable, hospitable, and love to travel.  Now, on the cusp of ending lockdowns, people have what economists are calling ‘pent-up’ demand.  As domestic and international borders begin to open, fostered by vaccine ‘passports,’ reunions with families and friends will surely reach fever pitch (Quiggin, 2021).

Advancements in automation are deployed for processing physical items, whereas ‘softer’ technology is used to process data, information, and media (Collier & Evans, 2021).  Indeed, throughout the lockdowns, Australians used their Netflix subscriptions to maximum utility (Morgan, 2020).  In the physical sense, touch- and swipe interfaces are the new norm and users appear to have embraced facial biometrics for authentication (Roussi, 2020).  Facial recognition has been embedded in passports and surveillance (Hunt, 2017) and sophisticated detection technology is used to screen luggage, baggage, imported goods and passengers (Smiths, 2019).  The major booking system used in aviation, Sabre, allows tracking of flights via mobile telephones and has allowed peripheral businesses such as vehicle hire to bundle products for the travelling public.  Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are also a maturing technology used in supply chain management (SCM) and therefore are present in ports (Deloitte The Netherlands, 2020).

Australia is a large island nation in the south-pacific, 7.692 million km2 (GA, 2021).  Although it is a continental island, it accounts for less than 5% of the worlds land area (GA, 2021) and less than 1% of the world’s drinkable water supply (Lehane, 2014).  Because of the deserts, Australians tend to live around the coastal areas where multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism characterises metropolises (Bongiorno, 2015) and this makes Australia an attractive option for international migration (Australian Parliament, 2021).  Around its perimeter, Australia boasts 182 shipping ports (Ports Australia, 2021) and there are 31 international airports of which seven are designated as ‘major’ (DITRDC, 2021).

The Australian Government Department of Home Affairs regulates airport security through the Aviation Transport Security Act (Cth, 2004) and the Aviation Transport Security Regulations (2005).  These instruments apply to both air cargo and aviation transport and provides for specific obligations on airport operations.  Among them are the obligations to demarcate specific security zones, to appropriately label them and to screen passengers prior to embarkment.  In line with the lockdowns, criminal activity reduced significantly in the June 2021 quarter (ABS, 2021b).  Unlawful entry with intent and motor vehicle theft decreased to their lowest levels in twenty-five years, whereas crimes associated with family and domestic violence-related sexual assault grew 13% on 2019 figures (ABS, 2021b.).  Non-criminal legal activity in Australia focuses on ensuring market transparency (McCauley, 2018; Murtough, Pearson & Wreford, 1998).

Industry Environment

Airports act as entry and exit points for goods and people into and out of a country or other jurisdiction (e.g., States).  Naturally part of national infrastructure (and typically considered ‘critical infrastructure’), it is essential that airports are in strategically chosen locations.  The locale will impact on the level of competition and the internal rivalry force for airports (The World Bank, 2007).  For example, London Heathrow Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, and Dubai International Airport are considered major global hubs for aviation.  The demand for airport services is influenced by the amount of goods entering and exiting the country.  Further issues that impact on competitive rivalry include the services and capacity of nearby airports and whether they can absorb overflow in the event of demand exceeding capacity; national comparative advantages also play a role (The World Bank, 2027).

Airports are subject to government regulation.  Like any piece of infrastructure, airports require government planning and sign-off, taking years—sometimes decades—in the planning (Infrastructure Victoria, 2019).  For example, the new airport planned for Western Sydney has been in the planning since October 2015 (DITRDC, 2020).  Infrastructure such as airports are enormous undertakings, costing several billions to develop.  Still, governments such as Australia’s are keen to start infrastructure projects for the employment opportunities they create (ALGA, 2021) and the tendency for governments to bolster the Australian economy by post-War economic stimulants such as infrastructure building (Daley, 2019).  Once a new airport is established, there are few switching costs for customers (The World Bank, 2007).

While mobility has obvious substitutes in rail, road, and sea, the objective for travel should be examined when considering substitutes for airports.  The recent global pandemic has proved that individuals flocked to videoconferencing, telephone, and other forms of electronic communication, while they were forced to stay at home (Morgan, 2020).  As a result, air travel declined rapidly during the lockdown (Sydney Airport Holdings, 2020).  However, for goods transport, there appears to be few alternatives beyond rail, road and sea.  One alternative, thanks to the slowing growth of globalisation, is for nations to produce more goods domestically.  This would reduce the need for access to airports but would be inefficient uses of national resources (cf. comparative advantage).  Non-physical goods of course can bypass importation through electronic means: Basslink is an example of import and export of data and electricity that bypasses ports.

Airports act as critical infrastructure license terminal operators to run the operations (e.g., Port Authority NSW, 2018).  They, in turn, have customers that include arriving aircraft, each of which make significant investment in facilities (The World Bank, 2007).  Disembarking passengers enter the airport and go on their way.  Cargo are unloaded and onward to freight forwarding companies (AusTrade, 2021) and both are subject to customs clearance and immigration clearance.  Customs and immigration officials can legally slow the flow of passengers and goods if they suspect contraband or other illegal movement into or out of the airport.  Airport operators (e.g., Qantas) could theoretically amass enough market power to effectively control the flow of goods and passengers, especially if they have a presence at multiple ports.

Airports also have a strong union presence, which can affect the flow of goods and passengers.  The Transport Workers Union (TWU) have made significant demands of terminal operators in the recent past (Rourke, 2011) and strike when their demands are not met.  Airports also face the threat of operator alliances, which would materialise for collective bargaining (Rourke, 2011).  Terminal operators will need an ability to absorb downtime (The World Bank, 2007) and to increase capacity for higher demand times, such as the holiday season.  This seasonality make ports susceptible to variation in demand.

Internal Environment

Celebrating its centenary in 2019, “Sydney Airport,” which is operated by Sydney Airport Holdings, is considered national critical infrastructure (DHA, 2021).  Boasting a purpose ‘[t]o make Sydney proud every day’ (Sydney Airport Holdings, 2020, p. 12), the business raises revenue from aviation operators and non-aeronautical activities, such as retail, property and car rental, carparking and ground transport (Sydney Airport Holdings, 2020).  Through this, it must maintain its 8.9 km of runways, its 74 terminals, 30,046 square metres of retail, 17,237 car parks and its other interests (IbisWorld, 2021).  Guiding the attainment of its mission is a set of values (Sydney Airport Holdings, 2020, pp. 12-13):

• always do the right thing – integrity and honesty are at the heart of everything we say and do;
• have each other’s [sic.] back – working at SYD is a team effort. We care.  We keep each other safe and well;
• do what you say – we challenge respectfully then collaborate to get to ‘yes.’ We commit and deliver; and,
• think like our customers – we walk in their shoes and always strive to improve.

Among its main expenses are employees, maintaining services and utilities (e.g., carparks and runways), maintaining its portfolio of property, and security services mandated by the government (Sydney Airport Holdings, 2020, pp. 18-19).  In this manner, it can be thought of as a facility with operations focused on generating revenue and maintenance.

The 2020 financial year with the Covid-19 pandemic was not kind to Sydney Airport Holdings, ravaging its revenues and decimating its profits.  Passenger volumes in the March quarter were 18 per cent down and 93.4 per cent down for the remainder of the year (Sydney Airport Holdings, 2020, p. 2).  In turn, revenue declined by 51 per cent to AUD $804 million and EBITDA down 62 per cent to AUD $628 million; its after tax loss for the 2020 financial year amounted to AUD $107.5 million.

In the wake of the pandemic-engendered lockdowns, Sydney Airport sought to protect its people and its business.  In a rare display, it guaranteed jobs for six months from April through to September 2020 (Sydney Airport Holdings, 2020, p. 18).  In committing to these imperatives, Sydney Airport remained ‘Australia’s Gateway’, handling “the bulk of Australia’s air freight” (Sydney Airport Holdings, 2020, p. 2) and half of Australia’s repatriation efforts to date.  Although there were significant declines in passenger movement, freight movement increased 124 per cent (Sydney Airport Holdings, 2020, p. 7).

Managing the financial impact of the pandemic, Sydney Airport raised AUD $850 million in debt and AUD $2 billion in equity (Sydney Airport Holdings, 2020, p. 2) and responded with reductions to operating costs.  These initiatives combined to allow for a favourable liquidity position.  The board also took the difficult decision not to pay a dividend, further strengthening the cash position (Sydney Airport Holdings, 2020, p. 3) and enabling it to maintain a 1.8 cash flow cover ratio.

It is not surprising that workplace safety incidents reduced by 43 per cent.  Given that many Sydney Airport personnel were required to work from home, the safety program extended to home offices.  The business rolled out safety initiatives, including walking programs and others relating to mental health (Sydney Airport Holdings, 2020, p. 3).  Beyond the focus on safety, Sydney Airport also achieved a 50:50 representation of males and females on its leadership team (Sydney Airport Holdings, 2020, p. 3) and were able to close its gender pay gap to 0.2 per cent.  However, more than 10,000 jobs were lost from the airport precinct, which are hoped to return as Sydney Airport and its communities recover from the pandemic, rebuild and return.

The following table illustrates the Sydney Airport Holdings financials.

Table 3: Selected Sydney Airport Holdings Financials (Intelligent Investor, 2021)

Sydney Airports losses were to be expected, but it nonetheless exercised strong corporate citizenry activities such as relieving retail rents and guaranteeing employee jobs.  ‘Sharing the pain’ (Sydney Airport Holdings, 2020, pp. 26-7) is a section in the annual report that details how Sydney Airport sought to balance the impact of the economic downturn with its community partners.  A rare display of corporate citizenship (Morgan, 2020), the move demonstrated the long-term orientation adopted by the board.

Conclusion

Culbert has now settled but he feels a pang of shame sweep over him for losing it in front of the old sage.  Gerber gives him a wink and motions off as he goes to the newsagent.  Just as that happens, Culbert’s phone rings.  He is filled with a grateful feeling for Gerber’s council and nearly lets the call go to voicemail.  Reaching into his pocket, he sees the call is from Alan Joyce, AC, the QANTAS CEO.

“G’day Alan, how are you?  To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?”  Culbert is surprised at the sudden call.  “Oh, stop the ceremony, Geoff, you knew this call was eventually going to come.”  Joyce’s banter is playful and he helps to relieve some of Culbert’s discomfort, sharpening him into focus.

“What do you mean, Alan?”  Culbert is eager to learn what this is about.  “We’re going back in the air,” Joyce explains.  “What?  When?”  Culbert can hardly believe what he is hearing.  “Well, that’s what I’m calling you about, Geoff.  We want to start ramping things up over the next couple of weeks.  My sales team has been hard at it, planning big events, booking telly slots and we’re going to go hard—and I mean really hard.  In fact, you might have seen me on the telly this morning…”  Culbert thinks hard and remembers vaguely seeing Joyce on the morning news as he darted out of the house.  “Yeah, but I thought you were joking!”  Culbert immediately regrets what he said.

“Hahaha, you’re the joker, Geoff!  Seriously, I want to know whether you guys are ready to go so we can start rolling again.”  Joyce, sounds like he wants to get down to business.  “Alan, just give me ten minutes to get back to my desk where I have my notes and I can run you through the plan.  Okay?”

At that moment, Gerber returns when Culbert shouts at him, “you’ll never guess who that was!”  “Alan Joyce?” Gerber quips back with a wry wink.  “How did you know?”  Culbert is like a young kid, having watched a magician.  “Richard [Goyder] called last night and said Alan would be in touch.  Now, what are we going to do?”

How and in what time frame will Sydney Airport Holdings return to full scale of operations? What are the short term, medium term and long term strategy priorities? What impact will a second airport in Sydney have on Sydney Airport Holdins Limited?

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