Behind the scenes at airport’s new $300m transport hub

• Published date: 28 March 2024
• Author: Grant Bradley
• Publication title: Daily Post, The (Rotorua, New Zealand)

The $300m facility — which it says has the backing of airlines — will speed up entry and exit from the airport for international travellers. Initially, it will be for pick-up and drop-off only, buses and taxis (including ride shares)

Car parks on the upper floors will open later this year.

The hub is on the site of what was the main outdoor carpark A in front of the terminal and is critical to airport development, including the $3.9 billion new domestic terminal at the heart of a pricing row with airlines.

What can travellers expect from the transport hub? From early next Wednesday, the building will open with more than 320 metres of new undercover kerbside drop-off and pick-up for cars — up from 160m on what’s currently available in front of the terminal. The drop-off and pick-up lanes are designed to handle the 650 vehicles an hour expected at peak. The new pick-up and drop-off area is a little further away from the front door, but there’s more space to stop and a covered walkway to the terminal And if you’re taking a bus In the past half-year, 4.6 million international travellers passed through Auckland Airport. It is estimated up to 10 per cent of them used buses to get to and from the airport. Buses will from next week use the drop-off and pick-up lanes in the hub, which is a one to two-minute walk from the terminal’s front door. Longer-term, when the integrated domestic terminal is built, they will return to the area in front of the expanded terminal building.

What about Ubers? The first lane in the transport hub can be used by ride shares (such as Uber) for drop-offs. The ride-share pick-ups will be from the transport pick-up zone, which is a five- to seven-minute covered walk, north of the terminal, until the inner terminal road re-opens. Then all the commercial lanes will re-open (buses, ride shares etc.) and will return to a new road right in front of the terminal.

When will you be able to park in the new building? A short-term, 60-minute park is being developed on the ground floor for those who want a lingering farewell rather than a “kiss and go” drop-off. The top four floors will open about September with each having...