Transurban chief executive Scott Charlton says the company and its $23 billion debt book are well protected from rising inflation and interest rates, but that it may take a year for traffic to rebound to pre-pandemic levels.

The most recent data for Transurban’s 21 toll roads in Australia and the US for the three months ending in March showed that like-for-like traffic flows (excluding new toll roads that opened during the pandemic, such as Sydney’s NorthConnex) were still below 2019 levels in all cities except Brisbane.