Auckland Airport urges Tasman travel easing

There's a push on from Auckland International Airport for political parties to start taking up the cause of making air travel across the Tasman easier. Photo / NZ Herald

Auckland Airport is calling on political parties to make transtasman travel easier.

Tourist and business groups on both sides of the Tasman have launched a campaign to push for domestic-style travel between the two countries.

Auckland Airport has welcomed the push led by Australia's Tourism and Transport Forum.

"These proposed reforms would drive further growth in New Zealand's travel, trade and tourism. It would be great to see our political parties commit to supporting their implementation if they are elected to government at the upcoming election," said Charles Spillane, Auckland Airport's general manager aeronautical commercial.

The Forum has called for:

• Streamlining of border formalities on exit and entry.

• Cutting the Australian departure tax to AUD$25 (currently AUD$55) to encourage more travel between both countries.

• Opening additional points of entry at regional airports in Australia to encourage more travel.

• Developing common visitor visas to encourage more Asian visitors to combine both countries in one trip.

"Quite simply, these reform proposals make sense," said Spillane.

Australia is New Zealand's largest single source of visitors and around 759,000, or 63 per cent of Australians entered New Zealand through Auckland Airport in the last year.

"Importantly, the proposals also have the benefit of potentially facilitating international travel beyond New Zealand and Australia to Asia and the Americas. This can grow passenger volumes through hub airports like Auckland and bring down the cost of travel by creating benefits of scale and efficiencies for our airline customers."

Customs in this country says it is working with Australia to further develop SmartGate technology.