Wellington currently has no direct public transport route to the airport. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Wellington currently has no direct public transport route to the airport. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Senior Wellington journalist Georgina Campbell's fortnightly column looks closely at issues in the capital.
OPINION:
Welcome to Wellington, where the gateway to the city is through Miramar's Burger King.
My colleague Simon Wilson visited the capital last month, following which he tweeted:
"Just arrived Wgtn airport all posh and inviting,walk out into the - weather - and follow bus signs to a horrible faraway underground bunker only to find there is no longer a bus service. Wtf I used to love this city."
That's right, Wellington doesn't have a direct public transport service to the airport and it's pretty embarrassing.
Instead, many people opt to take the No 2 bus, which will get you within about 700 meters of the airport. You can walk through the nearby Burger King as a shortcut.
A bus called the Airport Flyer used to provide a direct route. It was a commercially run operation by NZ Bus and completely separate from the Metlink public transport network.
But over time its route shortened from Upper Hutt to the airport, to going from Lower Hutt, to cutting the Hutt Valley off all together.
Covid-19 was the final nail in the coffin for the service and NZ Bus pulled the plug in November last year.
Wellington Airport. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Originally the airport had a replacement sorted and swiftly announced it would be on the road by 2021, with Tranzit selected as the preferred operator following a tender process.
Then Greater Wellington Regional Council, the body responsible for public transport, swooped in and said it was taking control of securing the Airport Flyer's future.
Council officials said Metlink was best placed to run the airport service because it could be integrated in with the wider public transport system.
The airport clearly wasn't happy after investing resources in the new service. Chief executive Steve Sanderson wasted no time pointing out the bus would be further delayed while a new tender process was undertaken.
Neither party has offered an explanation as to what exactly went on between them. It was all a bit weird.
Wellingtonians can now expect a bus service direct to the airport by mid-2022.
Sure, there are less flights in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic but there's still domestic tourism and the transtasman bubble.
Emotional scenes as passengers arriving from Sydney are greeted by family at Wellington Airport. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Stepping off a plane and into a car is a pretty dirty way to travel in terms of carbon emissions.
But the long, embarrassing wait for a new Airport Flyer has got far less attention than the fact the service will not resume in the Hutt Valley.
The issue has united rivals Hutt South MP Ginny Andersen and National list MP Chris Bishop, who have teamed up with Hutt City mayor Campbell Barry.
The move was labelled a "slap in the face" to ratepayers and a campaign to "Fight for the Flyer" ignited.
The regional council has argued it is not commercially viable to extend the service back to the Hutt Valley and warned the bus would face reliability issues travelling on State Highway 2 in peak-hour traffic.
Anecdotally, the Flyer was experiencing dwindling patronage.
It's difficult untangling outrage in the Hutt Valley to distinguish actual demand from the comfort of knowing the service exists.
People in the Hutt Valley have had something taken away from them that they are understandably unhappy about it.
But they, along with the likes of Porirua City, also have good public transport services into Wellington City via the train network.
Energy would be well spent on advocating for the connections between these trains and the new airport service to be frequent and reliable.
There's a notable public resistance to making transfers on public transport, but the railway station works well as a hub for this and it can be a relatively painless exercise if done well.
The other issue requiring public attention is how much it will cost to catch this new airport bus.
Many think the previous fare of $12 to get from the city to the airport was too high and partly to blame for the Flyer's low patronage.
These issues of reliable, frequent and affordable public transport are critical.
If the $6.4 billion Let's Get Wellington Moving plan does end up providing mass rapid transit from the city to the airport, there won't be an airport bus route to fight over anyway.
