Auckland Airport chief executive Adrian Littlewood rejects Mike Hosking's 'national embarrassment' claim

Auckland Airport has rejected criticism it is delivering embarrassingly poor service. Photo / Edward Rooney

Auckland Airport chief executive Adrian Littlewood has rejected criticism his facility is an "embarrassment", rating the airport's services a 7 or 8 out of 10 - and saying $2 billion is being invested in infrastructure.

Newstalk ZB host Mike Hosking has criticised Auckland International Airport as a national embarrassment and the aviation equivalent of a long drop.

Speaking on Hosking's show today, Littlewood said the airport was in the middle of its "biggest ever upgrade", and would soon become a world-class facility.

Hosking had accused the airport of providing "amateurish" service.

"Auckland Airport ... appears to have been under construction or refurbishment for years.

"It is slow, it is understaffed, it is under-resourced, and it is a hopelessly amateurish way to arrive here."

Hosking said he arrived at the airport on Sunday after a trip to London and had to walk along the tarmac after his plane did not get a gate or bus to ferry passengers to the terminal.

He said airlines were also not happy with the amount of money they were being charged to use the airport and that the Commerce Commission was worried about the profits generated by the facility.

These views were backed by an outpouring of feedback from listeners of his show, Hosking said.

However, Littlewood rejected the criticism, saying customer feedback provided to the airport had been positive.

"If you ask the surveys that are being done - the million people giving us feedback every day through our real-time surveys - actually service is pretty good, 4 out of 5," he said.

"Yes, there will always be circumstances where things don't go right on any given day and we do care about it – absolutely.

"Do we have more investment going into infrastructure services and the like - absolutely we do."

Auckland Airport's owners were spending $2b to upgrade infrastructure and services by building more gates, a new arrivals area and domestic terminal among other projects either already delivered or on the way, he said.

This meant that 97 per cent of passengers using the airport boarded and disembarked their planes using a gate.

And despite, pulling in about $250 million a year in profits, the airport was not running an unfair monopoly, he said.

The latest Commerce Commission report was satisfied with the airport's performance and services, he said.

While the airlines were grumbling, this was a way for them to apply pressure to try and force the airport to lower its charges, he said.

"You see this in Europe, you see this in the US. So the playbook they are running is exactly the same as it is overseas," he said.

When asked to rate the airport out of 10, Littlewood gave it a 7 or 8 out of 10.

"That is based on customer feedback, on the whole we are doing a pretty good job," he said.