Local Focus: Taupō's $10m airport terminal on time and on budget

Taupō's new airport terminal is one of the few major construction projects in New Zealand on time and on budget, as widespread shortages of key products continue to plague the industry, along with rising costs.

The roof shout was held last week and project manager Pernille Fletcher says timing was everything for the almost $10m build.

"We signed a contract for both the airport and the carpark literally months before that real crunch came," she said.

"The Covid impact didn't really hit until the mid-late of last year, so we were able to procure most of the building materials before that real crunch came.

"Street lights have taken a significantly long time.

"There's been some delays on the provision of Gib and obviously structural steel, but we have reorganised the delivery time so that we're able to do some components faster than others."

Taupō was enjoying strong growth before Covid, reflected in growing numbers of passengers from several industries.

Taupō mayor David Trewavas said the typical passenger was from one of four industries - forestry, agriculture, tourism and geothermal energy.

"It's just the need for connectivity to this district from the external areas of New Zealand and indeed international," Trewavas said.

"The terminal was outdated - the people were just crowded on the outside - it was time for a new one."

Taupo District Council helped fund the project with $3.4m from its Long Term Plan, $5m from the central government's Provincial Growth Fund, and $870,000 from the Ministry of Transport.

Fletcher said the new terminal will be three times larger than the previous building "because obviously there's a lot of growth in the Taupō district".

"We do find that at peak times it can get very busy in the old terminal and also quite noticeable through Covid, where you would find people were all crushed up together," she said.

Taupo Airport Operations Manager Kim Gard said before Covid passenger numbers were about 70,000.

"At the moment we're around 32,000 per annum, but I've just done the passenger numbers for April and there's certainly an increase again," Gard said.

"We're starting to see those numbers and aircraft movements."

The terminal's design features the area's three maunga and a mauri stone.

The old terminal will be demolished with the majority.