Auckland Airport Chief Executive Carrie Hurihanganui discusses the new Transport Hub. Video / Jason Oxenham
Auckland Airport’s new transport hub will begin to open to passengers from next week ahead of the busy school holiday period for international travel.
The $300m facility - which it says has the backing of airlines - will speed up entry and exit from the airport by 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.
Parking fees are notoriously high at airports and although prices haven’t been finalised for the September opening of upper levels of the transport hub, the company says they will be comparable to other undercover facilities and designed to offer travellers “more choice” of what they want to pay.
The hub is on the site of what was the main outdoor car park A in front of the terminal and is critical to the development of the airport, including the $3.9 billion new domestic terminal, now at the heart of a row with airlines over pricing.
What can travellers expect from the transport hub?
From early on Wednesday, April 3, the building will open and there is more than 320m of new undercover kerbside drop-off and pick-up for cars – up from 160m in space on what’s currently available right out in front of the terminal.
Construction progress at the new site. Photo / Jason Oxenham
The drop-off and pick-up lanes are designed to handle the 650 vehicles an hour expected at peak, and the new building is described as an important part of the jigsaw in building a new integrated domestic terminal. The new pick-up and drop-off area is a minute or two further away from the front door, but there’s more space to stop and a covered walkway to the terminal. The ground floor of the hub covers more than 14,000sq m and the building is a ‘‘step change’' for the airport, said chief executive Carrie Hurihanganui.
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 right 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 around September with each having up to 450 spaces for cars.
Auckland Airport Chief Executive Carrie Hurihanganui at Auckland International Airport's new Transport Hub.
Photo / Jason Oxenham.
What will parking cost?
Chief commercial officer Mark Thomson says charges haven’t been set yet but it was likely they would be similar to current fees.
‘‘We index all our pricing against other airports and CBD comparable parking. Customers have said they want to simplify the offer and we are doing some work on that to make sure that it is really intuitive and customers know where the best products are,’' he said.
This ranges from park and ride to ‘’proximate’' car parking and valet parking.
‘‘Our main objective is to give everyone a range of choice, the parking indexing won’t be much different to other car parks at the moment.’'
The new building is significantly closer to the terminal. Photo / Jason Oxenham
For the last full year, car-parking revenue was $57.7m, still down on the pre pandemic figure of $64.2m in 2019.
How about light rail?
Plans for light rail have been ditched for now but if it did one day make it to the airport, there is space to the northeast of the new Transport Hub for a station and a protected corridor (for light or heavy rail) through the rest of the airport campus. Hurihanganui said passenger numbers would more than double to 42 million by 2047 and Auckland can’t rely on single-vehicle passenger trips.
A former Air New Zealand colleague of Hurihanganui, Cam Wallace, who is now head of international at Qantas, likened the scale of investment in the integrated terminal to the Taj Mahal. The airport dismissed that claim and Hurihanganui said the new 70,000sq m Transport Hub was nothing like it either.
‘‘You stand here and see this isn’t a Taj Mahal. It’s concrete, it’s signage, it’s space and it’s efficient - there’s not a lot a flashiness here.’'
The airport had a good operational relationship with airlines but every five years there was ‘‘tension and noise’' when it comes to pricing. ‘‘
Consultation had run for 10 years with airlines, she said.
What else is there at the Hub?
Directly alongside the Transport Hub, new office spaces for the airport’s operational teams and partner organisations are under construction, designed to a 5-Star Green rating. A 1.2-megawatt rooftop solar array will help power the office building and the EV charging available in the car park.
Around the Transport Hub, there are pedestrian walkways and landscaping with native planting, including mature pōhutukawa relocated from the surrounding construction sites. Five 25,000 litre rainwater tanks will provide non-potable water for the office and hub, plus irrigation for planted areas.
Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism
