Airport plans for virus impact

Marlborough Airport is bracing itself for the impacts of coronavirus, but says the pandemic has so far made ‘‘no noticeable difference’’ on its daily operations.

Operations manager Steve Holtum said on Monday the airport was considering ‘‘flexible employment options’’ and talking to contractors who could bolster numbers should staff need to self-isolate for two weeks.

As of this week, there were eight confirmed cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand.

Restrictions announced by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Saturday mean all travellers to New Zealand – bar those from the Pacific Islands – must self-isolate for 14 days upon their arrival. The restrictions apply to New Zealand citizens and permanent residents as well as foreign nationals. However, pilots and flight crew are exempt from the new rule.

Holtum said the safety of travellers and airport staff was the company’s ‘‘highest priority’’, and that it was doing everything it could to ensure Marlborough had a ‘‘resilient airport’’ that could remain open for travel.

He said the airport planned to increase cross-training to ensure each staff member knew the essentials of one another’s roles, in case one was sick.

‘‘Airport staff can’t work from home, because they need to do site checks of the [airport] runway three times a day, for things like animals,’’ he said.

The airport had already stepped up its ‘‘rigorous’’ cleaning regime to include key ‘‘touch points’’ like door handles and baggage trolley handles, he said.

More hand sanitiser had also been made available for staff and travellers. It had also put a greater cleaning focus on public bathrooms, which were cleaned twice a day, and continued to use hospital-grade disinfectant.

Airport staff had also ordered additional hygiene supplies in case its stock supply was ‘‘interrupted’’, added Ministry of Health guideline links to its website, and were reviewing backup protocols for the airport’s IT systems.

‘‘All staff are trying to keep a [one] metre distance and not shake hands.’’

Despite tour charters, which made up about 2 per cent of Marlborough Airport flights, being ‘‘postponed indefinitely’’, the airport had seen no flight schedule changes and ‘‘no noticeable difference’’ in passenger numbers.’’

Holtum said it was ‘‘quite fortunate’’ that tour charters had been postponed three-quarters of the way through their season, after most had already run.

He expected Covid-19 to affect the region’s passenger numbers, but it was ‘‘too early’’ to estimate its true impact.

Marlborough Airport saw between 300,000 and 320,000 passengers a year, or between 25,000 and 26,670 a month. Holtum said about 24,000 passengers visited the airport in January.

Air New Zealand said on Monday that domestic capacity would be reduced by around 30 per cent in April and May – up to 8000 passengers a month in Marlborough – but the airline said no routes would be suspended.

Sounds Air managing director Andrew Crawford said the company had not seen any downturns in passenger numbers, but would be ‘‘surprised’’ if there wasn’t one in future.

The company’s domestic travel was most likely to be affected, Crawford said, because its international season had already ‘‘peaked and gone past’’.

Crawford said Sounds Air would run sales over the coming months to encourage people to fly domestically.