First look at Auckland Airport’s integrated domestic terminal
Thursday, 2 May 2024
Auckland Airport has offered a detailed look at the to-be-constructed domestic jet terminal.
The regional area of the terminal will remain as it is for now, with conversations being had about its future.
The new integrated terminal is due to be finished by 2028/29 and will have international and domestic under one roof.
Auckland Airport has offered a detailed sneak peek of its new integrated domestic jet terminal.
After three years of design, the under-one-roof terminal is due to be completed by the end of the decade, in either 2028 or 2029.
The domestic terminal first opened in 1966 but has run out of capacity.
Chief customer officer Scott Tasker said it has served the city well but is congested during peak times, which means there is no possibility of adding additional flights at that of the day.
“What we need to do… is to move on and provide a fit-for-purpose efficient domestic terminal that enables good customer experience [and for] travellers to connect seamlessly between domestic and international flights.
“Currently, if you're transferring from a domestic to an international flight, travellers will be well aware that you have to follow the green line… but ultimately, it means a lot of people are walking in the rain during Auckland weather.”
When complete, it will take connecting passengers five minutes to walk from domestic to international, under the same roof.
“This will be a fit for purpose terminal. There will be no gold plating. It will provide, however, a significant uplift in travel experience,” Tasker said.
“It will offer better navigation for travellers. It will offer more seating areas and places to charge your phone. It will offer good bathroom facilities and it will offer more capacity for airlines to add flights during the peak periods.”
Behind the scenes, checked luggage will be tracked in real time in a modern individual carrier system for baggage handling.
For travellers starting their journey in Auckland, check-in kiosks, automatic bag drops, and all-day check-in will mean the end to waiting in line at check-in counters.
“All our check-ins for both domestic jet and international passengers will be in the same place, making it much easier for travellers,” Tasker said.
The new domestic terminal with 12 jet gates would allow around 26% more gate capacity, which would allow for a surge of demand to be met, such as an All Blacks game in Dunedin.
It would also increase the capacity to process travellers through the security checkpoint by 44%.
“So what that means is that current airlines will be able to add more flights during peak periods, and in fact across the day, and there will be the opportunity for new competitors to enter the market if they so choose.”
Tasker said the 18-20 million travellers that will depart and arrive at Auckland Airport each year will see some disruptions until construction ends.
“We're working really hard to ensure that we minimise that disruption as well as possible and we do ask customers to please bear with us during that period. Ultimately, the end product will be worth the wait.”
Tasker said customers will continue to use the existing terminal for the next five years, but bathrooms, help desks and dwelling spaces are also being upgraded in the meantime.
The current domestic terminal will continue to handle regional flights, in the interim.
“Regional travel is also important to us. It is firmly part of our master plan. We are continuing to consult with airlines on the future of regional travel.
“We have to tackle one thing at a time. To start with, what we're doing is delivering the integrated jet terminal into the international terminal.
“That will then give us the breathing space to be able to start to look at what we do from a regional travel perspective.“
What can passengers expect from the new terminal:
A five-minute undercover walk between international and domestic terminals.
Queue wait times of four minutes of less for self-check-in and bag drop.
Check-in kiosks and automatic bag drops, capable of future upgrades to biometric technology.
All-day check in.
Check in for domestic and international at the same place.
Less than 7.5 minutes for security.
Less than 15 minutes from first bag to last bag on belt.
Device charging points at 50% of seats the pre-departure area.
Two baggage reclaim carousels with 180m of belt space - a 70% increase on the current domestic terminal.
Dedicated faith spaces.
A low-sensory room.
Fully-accessible Changing Places bathrooms as well as gender-neutral bathrooms.
Baby change facilities in both the male and female bathrooms, as well as family-specific facilities.
The new domestic jet terminal is expected to cost $2.2 billion overall, with a further $1.7 billion to cover the cost of integrating domestic and international travel.
That is part of the total $7-8 billion redevelopment at the airport over 10 years, which has already seen the opening of the first stage of its transport hub in April, including a new pick-up and drop-off area at the international terminal.
Air NZ chief executive Greg Foran said in February “the new airport will look great, but this spend doesn’t deliver an additional runway and there will be virtually no increase in airside capacity for more customers.
“By 2032 the value of the airport’s asset base, which dictates the size of its charges, will have increased per-passenger domestic charges five times, with more to come in the future,” Foran said.
Tasker told media on Thursday that speculation it would increase its charges to $46 per domestic passenger by 2032 is wrong.
“Currently, a domestic jet passenger travelling from Auckland pays just over $10 to arrive or depart from the airport. By 2027 that will rise to around $15 per traveller which will bring us into line with the domestic passenger charges that other major airports in New Zealand charge.
“If we look forward to the next pricing period, which is from 2027 to 2032, whilst we haven't consulted with the airlines on those prices, there has been some speculation that travellers could pay up to $46 per journey to use Auckland Airport. That is absolutely wrong. We estimate that travellers will be paying around half that once the new domestic terminal opens.
“We have consulted extensively with the airlines up until 2021 and beyond around this domestic terminal. In fact, it was the airlines who initially proposed that an integrated terminal would be a great idea at Auckland Airport because of the benefits that it brings to customers and also the airlines.”
Air New Zealand has lodged an official request with Commerce Minister Andrew Bayly for an urgent inquiry into the regulations of the airport, saying they fail to constrain the airport’s overspending.