Finance News Network Transcription of Discussion Given by Sydney Airports Limited (ASX:SYD) CEO and Managing Director, Kerrie Mather 2015 was a very strong set of results, largely driven by international traffic and also investment driving yield expansion across all our businesses. So revenue grew by 5.6 per cent and EBITDA grew by 5.8 per cent. The key drivers of growth were, we had seven new international airlines, so together with a significant number of our existing carriers adding capacity, you’ll see 1.5 million new seats for this year.
We also hit a number of key milestones for last year as well. Last year we completed renegotiations with all of our international airline partners. We concluded the T3 transaction and we executed of $339 million investment program on time, and on budget.
The key drivers of our revenue are passengers, investment and management initiatives. Passengers are actually growing very strongly. We had two very strong months of growth at the beginning of this year, in January and February. And in fact international passengers, who drive about 70 per cent of our revenues, grew 9.5 per cent and over 12.5 per cent respectively, for January and February.
We also have now become the number one airport for long haul, low cost carriers in the world. We now have five airlines serving the airport and they carry about 11 per cent of our international passengers. They use our infrastructure very efficiently and the exciting thing is they’re actually driving new demand to travel from a range of new markets.
We’ve got four main lines of business. We’ve got aviation, which is about half of our revenues. And then the other half of the revenues is apportioned between retail, which is about 22 per cent, property which is about 17 per cent and car parking, which is around 12 per cent. The standout performers were actually aviation and car parking, so aviation being driven by accommodation of international passengers. International passengers performed very strongly and represent about 70 per cent of our overall revenues. So a strong driver of our revenues on the aviation side.
But also the very significant investment program was also a key driver of the aviation business. And car parking has been driven by the very strong performance of the online business. People are really taking advantage of our significant discounts of parking online, and we’re now up to about 400,000 people booking online.
T3’s performing very well since we completed that transaction in September last year. At Terminal Two, we’ve actually completed a very significant refresh of the dining offering there. And then at Terminal One, we’ve got a very significant improvement program underway there. Improving the ambience and presentation of the terminal, improving the site lines through to gates and putting more seating throughout the terminal. We’re also in the process of doing a very significant upgrade and refresh of all the retail and dining options as well.
We’ll continue to work with the Australian Government to evaluate the opportunity to develop and operate the Western Sydney Airport. And the Government has indicated that they’ll be providing Sydney Airport with a proposal or a Notice of Intention, which will contain all the material terms for the development and operation of the airport, during 2016.
The focus will be to continue to execute on our strategic priorities. So partnering for growth in aviation, investing in capacity and efficiency, and continuing to deliver a superior passenger experience.
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