By Roy Weavers

North Queensland Airports, the owners of Cairns and Mackay Airports, welcomes the announcement by Auckland International Airport Limited (Auckland Airport) that it has agreed to purchase of a 24.55% interest in North Queensland Airports (NQA).

NQA Chairman, Jason Zibarras, said his Board of Directors looks forward to working with Auckland Airport and forging a new alliance to promote Cairns and Mackay.

"With the recent Aviation White Paper initiatives, signs of stronger traffic growth and a raft of new airline services, this is all very positive news," Mr Zibarras said.

Auckland Airport will join fellow investors IIF Cairns Mackay Investment Ltd (an entity advised by JP Morgan Asset Management), The Private Capital Group’s The Infrastructure Fund, managed by Hastings, and Perron Investments Pty Ltd.
"As an airport operator investing in NQA Auckland Airport will bring additional expertise and their proposed investment is a welcome mark of confidence in the outlook for Cairns and Mackay," Mr Zibarras said.

"It will also provide excellent opportunities to leverage the synergies between Cairns and Auckland as international gateway airports and to develop new links for Mackay’s diverse resource, tourism, business and agriculture market base."

"All three cities sit at the heart of renowned nature based tourism regions and I am sure that sharing a wealth of knowledge and experience in destination marketing as a key component of airport business development will be beneficial to all."