Airport says plan ahead to beat holiday rush
Travel boom means busy terminal will be even more crowded this summer
uckland Airport has revealed measures it hopes will ease a summer crunch and improve conditions critics have described as “Third World”.
In a warning issued yesterday, it told passengers to allow extra time during the summer peak, when there will be up to 30,000 passengers a day using the international terminal, up 15 per cent on last year.
Passengers should get there 30 minutes earlier than usual, the airport says.
It has also publicly li sted the busiest 10 days during summer.
The airport will handle 150 flights a day as inbound tourism and travel by Kiwis booms. Three new airlines are due to begin services in the next two months and current carriers are boosting capacity.
A shortage of gates means the rate of busing passengers between the tarmac and the terminals has more than doubled.
Passengers have complained of long waiting times getting through the airport, one saying biosecurity lines stretched 100m recently. Passengers and workers are increasingly being caught in road traffic gridlock at peak times.
One experienced aviation industry worker said there was increasingly a “shambolic lolly scramble” among airlines for gates.
“The present improvements to the international terminal are going to prove to be too little, too late.”
Passengers are having to negotiate their way around a major upgrade of the international departure area, with new passport control, security screening and processing area, and new space for two duty- free stores.
The insider said workers in the airport area dreaded travelling between 6.30am and 9.30am and during the evening peak.
Traffic was “diabolical” and it was not uncommon to take 30- 40 minutes to move 2- 3km.
“However, if the public think the ‘ land- side’ is Third World, they have no idea about the frustrations and anger from the airlines and ground handling companies on the ‘ airside’,” he said.
Air New Zealand, the airport’s biggest airline customer, i s diplomatic.
It has rostered more staff to communicate directly with customers about the “infrastructure challenges” facing the airport, and where possible advise them in advance that they may be taken by bus to planes.
“Naturally, we would like to offer all our customers a consistent boarding and disembarkation experience and we look forward to Auckland airport resolving its infrastructure challenges,” a spokeswoman said.
In October, the airport company, which made a profit of $ 262 million last year, was told by a shareholder at its annual meeting that using buses to get passengers to the terminal was “Mickey Mouse” and “Third World” for tourists.
But the company’s chief executive, Adrian Littlewood, said the percentage of passengers put on buses was low by international standards. Overseas airports used buses for up to half their passengers, while at Auckland they were now used in about 5 per cent of cases. Previously, it had been around 2 per cent.
During the past financial year, total passenger numbers were up 9 per cent to 17.3 million. Eight new airlines announced services during the year and since June 30 two more had said they are coming here.
“Infrastructure takes a lot longer to turn up than the planes that are arriving here,” Littlewood told the Herald.
Geoff Levick of Kumeu said in a letter to the Herald he saw lines of “downcast and confused” tourists and he felt ashamed.
But Judy Nicholl, Auckland Airport’s general manager — aeronautical operations, said it was taking steps to deal with the summer peak.
It had installed 45 mobile international self- service check- in kiosks; reconfigured its international check- in area to provide 13 more service counters and upgraded its international baggage handling system.
On the airfield, it had built a new taxiway and a new fully- serviced air- field stand, and two improved remote airfield stands to accommodate larger international aircraft.
The airport has hired more than 60 “passenger experience assistants” to help passengers. The Aviation Security Service has increased processing capacity by around 16 per cent.
The NZ Transport Agency said it was “aware of the traffic congestion in and around Auckland International Airport and appreciates the frustrations of people who are affected by delays”.
There were now 56,000 trips a day to and from the airport on State Highway 20A, and 30,000 to and from the airport on State Highway 20B.
Work taking place on the road network around the airport includes an underpass at SH20A around Kirkbride Rd and the addition of extra lanes on SH20, around Neilson St in Onehunga, but that won’t be finished until after the summer peak.
The work is in preparation for the opening of the Waterview Tunnel next year, to provide extra capacity for traffic leaving the tunnel.
The airport’s general manager of airport development and delivery, Graham Matthews, said the worst problem was road traffic congestion, which would be eased next year.
He did not believe the airport had been caught out with its infrastructure programme, although forecasting was notoriously difficult.
Airlines occasionally started services the airport wasn’t expecting, but Matthews said his company had generally got it right.
“We build infrastructure to meet demand, not exceed it.”
The company has previously discussed building the “airport of the future” — a multibillion- dollar project.
A new domestic terminal to replace the existing one, which is in a 50- year- old building, is part of the plan. Matthews said design work could be made public within six to 12 months.