Building work starts on Auckland's Airport of the Future

Auckland Airport chief executive Adrian Littlewood. Photo / Nick Reed

After years of planning, the building work has started on Auckland's Airport of the Future.

It's an investment of about $4 billion and the biggest upgrade since the start of the jet age more than 50 years ago. It's also the biggest commercial infrastructure project in New Zealand.

Auckland Airport chief executive Adrian Littlewood says there are billions of dollars of projects in the ground now and another couple of billion's worth around the corner.

The Airport of the Future is a programme made up of eight anchor projects and hundreds of smaller projects.

The anchors are the strategic moves that will change the nature of the airport. Four of the eight projects are already underway and two more are about to start.

"The first anchor project out of the blocks was the airport-wide transport upgrade with a budget of around $200 million," Littlewood says.

"We're building roads for private vehicles and mass transit networks as well as adding walking and cycling connectivity from the north. The dedicated bus lanes will go all the way through to the terminal.

"We're also working with NZTA and Auckland Transport out to the south to connect to the Puhinui train station upgrade. We've been vocal advocates for a long time about the importance of connecting to mass transit networks. You will have dedicated, prioritised mass transit access from the rest of the city, whether that's on the bus network or the train network with a single change."

Littlewood says having the train connection to Britomart is important for passengers, but it is also important for the people who work at the airport. There are thousands of jobs in and around Auckland Airport but the people employed there have not always had good transport options.

Updating the arrivals area is the second anchor project that recently started. Littlewood has earmarked some $350m to completely upgrade the international arrivals experience. The centrepiece is a 30,000sq m building.

"As a passenger coming through you will enter a new border processing area, then a new public arrivals area," he explains.

"Then you'll walk out of the door into a plaza between two hotels. The new space for border agencies will help keep the nation's borders secure.

"The other project happening now is the continuing upgrade to the current domestic terminal. That project has delivered new security screening areas along with new food and beverage options. There are also new lounges for frequent travellers."

The domestic terminal development will look after passengers as the fourth anchor project gets under way: The Domestic Jet Hub.

Littlewood says the Domestic Jet Hub is the biggest of all the projects.

It is where the domestic and international terminals are brought together in a single facility. It's one of the most complex and ambitious projects yet to be commissioned, there are thousands of moving parts and many stakeholders are involved in defining what it will look like.

"We're connecting into existing buildings and infrastructure. That means you've got to unload 50 years of existing activities, processes and the like. There's no question it is challenging. We've announced the formation of the construction alliance to build the new terminal."

The alliance contracting model is well established in New Zealand, although it is normally used for horizontal infrastructure such as roads.

Littlewood says it is well understood for horizontal infrastructure, but not typically done for vertical infrastructure.

Yet when the airport looked at the capacity and capability of New Zealand's construction market, the partners it would need to draw on and the challenge of running existing operations during the build, he says it was the right model. It's an approach the industry itself has been talking about for years.

Littlewood says the airport uses a more traditional design-build model on other projects such as the arrivals building. Yet even there it went down the path of early contractor involvement. He says this means working through and optimising the design from the outset.

Enabling work recently started on the Domestic Jet Hub, which means four anchor projects are now in the ground. Littlewood says Jet Hub construction will start later this year and the aim is to complete it in 2023.

He says a multi-level car park is another anchor project yet to start.

"We plan to add thousands of new car parks, but as part of an interconnected public transport system right outside the front door of the terminal. That will also create space for staff and construction workers to park. There will be 3200 bays. The ground floor will be a covered transport transfer centre. That's through design and we are in discussions with prospective contractors. Hopefully we'll be able to announce that soon."

Elsewhere in the pipeline is a future runway. Littlewood says progress has been made on this in recent months.

"There's a lot of detailed planning and engineering work with some complex decisions to make. We've secured the consents and designations for a full-length three-kilometre runway."

The plan is to invest $720 million on airfield maintenance and upgrades over the next four years. There have been recent problems with runway repairs causing flights to be cancelled. Littlewood says repairs are usually scheduled in conjunction with airlines; this time they took longer to complete than expected, a contributing factor was Auckland's unusually long, hot, dry summer.

"We apologised for that, but it's never a good thing".

For now the outlook is optimistic, the fundamentals are right and long-term growth looks set to continue.

Coronovirus effect

The timing of work on Auckland Airport's new runway and other pipeline projects depends on demand.

In part, this comes down to the impact of the coronavirus.

Littlewood says it looks as it the coronavirus outbreak could soften demand for a while. The airport previously said the new runway will be ready in 2028 "give or take three years". It may be the early 2030s. If necessary, there is a similar flexibility on the timing with other projects.