Auckland Airport braces for a bumper summer

By CHRIS DANIELS

It's called the Northern Winter Schedule - when the mercury drops in Dusseldorf, Detroit or Dundee and the beaches of New Zealand start to look inviting.

Supplied by the world's airlines to Auckland International Airport, the schedule officially starts at the end of this month and covers the New Zealand summer - the peak time for tourist arrivals.

With Auckland the first port of call for a little over 72 per cent of New Zealand's overseas arrivals, this is where the rush is first felt and the airport is poised to make big money out of those winter-fleeing northerners.

The company increased its after-tax profit by nearly 17 per cent in the year to July 2003, earning $83.5 million from revenue of $234.7 million.

While an earlier expectation of a 36 per cent jump in passengers has now eased to around 30 per cent, the expected climb is still unprecedented, said airport chief executive Don Huse.

It means that the large numbers of passengers who normally arrive early in the morning, around noon and in the late afternoon/early evening will start spreading out, with staff having less "quiet time".

Passengers will notice the differences, despite extra facilities already being built to help the airport cope with the summer surge.

Two "remote stands" are being built near the terminal, where planes can be serviced and refuelled away from the main pier and airbridges.

These will be used in some cases to park aircraft, with passengers either taken to or from their plane by buses to the terminal. Aircraft not being "turned around" quickly, will be refuelled and serviced away from the pier, allowing other planes to use the gates and airbridges.

Six new buses will be added to the existing fleet of eight, along with 200 new luggage trolleys, taking the airport's tally to 2000.

George Bolt Drive, one of the roads leading into the airport, is being widened to cope with increased traffic flows and 200 more carparks will be added to the domestic area and an extra 400 in the international long-stay area.

Longer term, said Huse, visitor numbers would be assessed to see if there was a need to build a second pier. The trick for a business like Auckland Airport was to build new facilities in stages, so money was not wasted building over-capacity.

On a more practical level, Huse is reminding people to expect congestion at peak times.

"We will be encouraging people to go through Customs a bit earlier before their flights - about 45 minutes before their flight's boarding time. To ensure that people are relaxed we will be encouraging people to get out here a bit earlier."

Auckland International Airport has capacity to deal with 2000 passengers an hour. Huse said this number was not expected to be exceeded this summer, but things could get tight if the aircraft arrivals and departures got "out of sync".

What the airlines are planning:

* Singapore Airlines will introduce three additional weekly flights on the Auckland-Singapore route, from October 28.

* Cathay Pacific, which flies between Hong Kong and Auckland, is adding two flights to its summer schedule, taking it to 12 flights a week.

* Royal Brunei is starting to fly between Auckland and Brisbane four times a week.

* South Korea's second-largest airline, Asiana, is about to start flying between Auckland and Seoul four times a week, beginning at the end of this month.

* Dubai-based Emirates, is adding a third daily flight between Auckland and Australia. Emirates is now the third-biggest carrier across the Tasman.

There is also speculation that Emirates will fly to Christchurch. A direct flight to Singapore from Auckland is another possibility.

From the beginning of December, it will use its new Airbus A340-500 long-haul aircraft on the Auckland-Sydney-Dubai route.

* Air NZ begins its Tasman Express service on October 29. With its new Airbus A320 aircraft and fares that have been cut up to 20 per cent, it is expecting to carry a lot more people this summer.

Its Auckland to Los Angeles services increase from 14 to 19 flights a week. Melbourne flights increase from 15 to 18 a week and one extra flight to Nadi is being put on, taking its weekly flights to Fiji to eight a week.