The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the Sydney Airport Corporation is negotiating to buy Qantas’ terminal at the international airport.

The interesting notion is that the Sydney Airport is privately owned (most of the equity is publicly traded) and it is immensely profitable.

The start of negotiations to acquire the Qantas terminal comes as the airport is on track to post earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $420 million for the year to June 30 as it benefits from the restoration of full operations at the former Ansett terminal and continuing cost reductions.



In the six months to December 31, the airport posted EBITDA of $206.2 million, up 12 per cent, on revenue of $271.5 million.



Securities analysts had forecast EBITDA for Sydney Airport of $420 million to $440 million for 2003-04.

Perhaps airport financing and development could learn something from the Sydney experience.