2019 CEO Survey: Geoff Culbert, Sydney Airport

Airports are the ultimate long-term, short-term business, says Sydney Airport’s Geoff Culbert.

Sydney Airport CEO Geoff Culbert. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Every year The Australian’s John Durie asks some of the biggest names in Australian business five key questions about what’s coming in the year ahead.

Here is what Sydney Airport’s Geoff Culbert sees ahead in 2020.

Read more from the CEO Survey.

How is your company affected by low-interest rates and what is needed to boost the economy?

Airports are the ultimate long-term, short-term business. We have planes taking off every 45 seconds but are making investment decisions with a 40-year horizon. So, while operationally we are very focused on the short-term, on the investment side we have a long horizon. We take a long-dated view of our capital structure and funding needs irrespective of movements in interest rates or debt markets. As far as boosting the economy, people need to feel confident about the future to spend. Hopefully we can put Brexit and the US-China trade war in the rear vision mirror, then have a sustained period of stable government both here and abroad. Uncertainty is the natural enemy of consumer confidence.

What percentage of company revenues are spent on research and development, and how is your company using technology to improve performance?

With more than 44 million passengers and 350,000 flight movements every year, improving our operational efficiency by even a half a percent generates an enormous dividend in terms of our customers’ experience. When it comes to technology investments, we are driven by things that are going to take the friction and hassle out of travelling. Data analytics are becoming increasingly important and we’re using it to look at everything from improving aircraft taxi times to faster baggage processing.

What are the three major policy issues facing the country and what should be done about them?

I think we should give our politicians a bit of a break – for the first time in years we are not coming into Christmas obsessing over Newspolls or leadership spills. Material policy reform flows from stable government and we now have the most stable government we’ve seen in a decade – they deserve credit for that. In that spirit, at the next election we should have a serious conversation about fixed four-year terms.

Whoever wins gets four years.