Work on new terminal to begin

Anyone catching a plane or picking up passengers from New Plymouth Airport will soon need to get there early.

Work on the new $28.7 million dollar terminal upgrade is due to begin this month, and while not much will change inside the terminal for now, contractors and roading crews will begin work on the car park and drop-off areas.

Although no firm start date has been given for the work, airport chief executive Wayne Wootton said visitors should be pre-warned.

‘‘We would urge airport users to give themselves plenty of time when travelling to the airport as traffic movements might be a little slower as works.

‘‘This is when the vision starts to become reality. Over the coming months, airport visitors will see the new gateway to Taranaki taking shape just to the left of the old terminal as they come along Airport Dr.’’

Speeds on Airport Dr will be lowered from 50 kilometres an hour to 30kmh as people enter the airport zone, which will help them adjust to changes in the road ahead and to accommodate construction traffic.

As work progresses the main entrance to the car park will be moved southwards, away from the terminal.

The route to the drop-off area and the taxi and shuttle road will people adapt to the divert to the right, just past the main car park entrance, while part of the northern side car park will be temporarily reallocated to rental cars.

Additional public spaces will be created at the southern side.

The new road layout will help to separate airport traffic from construction traffic going to the new terminal site just to the west of the current terminal.

The work comes after Jetstar recently scaled back the number of flights it operates between New Plymouth and Auckland.

In June the airline ‘‘temporarily’’ cut the number of flights to two return services each day in response to customer demand.

This has now become permanent, and since the end of October the airline has been continuing to operate two return flights a day, with an extra return service on Friday and Sunday.

The new schedule departs New Plymouth daily at 11:45am and

3:55pm, with two additional services operating on Friday and Sunday evenings, leaving New Plymouth at 8:40pm.

In June Air New Zealand said it had no plans to reduce flights.

In September a third operator, Originair, began offering direct flights to and from Nelson four days a week.

Councillors were given an update on the airport’s performance at a meeting on Wednesday.

The first quarter of this financial year saw more than

108,000 people travel through the terminal, producing a new record for the 12 month period of 424,154 travellers, the New Plymouth District Council’s performance committee was told.

A three per cent increase in passenger numbers over the same period meant the airport made a net profit after tax of $150,478, which was $33,146 above budget.

‘‘Air New Zealand has continued with very good load factors during the quarter and Jetstar, despite the decreased frequency over the winter period, has also maintained good passenger levels,’’ a report to the committee said.

Construction of the new terminal is scheduled to start in April and it is expected to be operating in the second half of 2019.

"Over the coming months, airport visitors will see the new gateway to Taranaki taking shape just to the left of the old terminal as they come along Airport Drive."

Airport chief executive Wayne Wootton