Analysis of the Port Macquarie-Sydney Route
Answer the following questions:
(a) Using an appropriate database, determine the share that the Port Macquarie-Sydney route has in the passenger throughput of Port Macquarie Airport between 2009 and 2019. Using calendar annual data, draw a line graph of this share between 2009 and 2019. Comment on the movements that you see in the graph. (5 Marks)
(b) Use an appropriate database to find the calendar annual seats operated on the Port Macquarie- Sydney route between 2009 and 2019. Graph the rate of change in Port-Macquarie-Sydney seats against the percentage change in passengers. Research the use of the “=correl (Datarange 1, Data range 2)” function in Microsoft Excel and find the correlation between passenger growth and seats growth for the route. Comment on your findings, discussing what is likely to be driving the strength of the correlation. (7 Marks)
(c) Use an appropriate database to find the monthly movement in Port-Macquarie-Sydney route passenger numbers between February 2008 and the most recent month. If there is no data available for particular months leave the observation point blank. Draw a line graph of the passenger numbers and comment on the seasonality, including the peak and off-peak months and why these months are peak and off-peak. (5 Marks)
(d) Use the monthly passenger data from (d) to comment on the recovery of the route from the impact of the Coronavirus. (3 Marks)
(e) Assume that the fuel cost per ASK for the market is 2.5 AU c/ASK and the non-fuel cost is 17.5 c/ASK. Also assume that the EBIT margin for the route is 10%. Use this information to find the 12 following for the aggregate of all airlines operating on the Port Macquarie-Sydney route for Calendar 2019: (i) the total operating costs, (ii) the total operating revenue, (iii) the level of EBIT, (iv) the passenger seat factor, (v) the RASK. (5 Marks)
