Aucklanders with long memories might just remember the opening of their new airport at Mangere in 1966. It was the dawn of the jet age and the glittering new terminal on the Mangere field would mean passengers would no longer embark from the hangers at Whenuapai.
Half a century later, that glittering terminal is looking its age.
It is the domestic terminal for an airport that serves more than 40 million passengers a year. A separate international terminal was built nearby more than 40 years ago, but while the international facilities have received countless makeovers — and seem to be almost permanently undergoing redesigns these days — the old domestic shed languishes.
Its size and design is hopelessly inadequate for the number of flights and volume of passengers it serves now. The check-in area is at one end of the ground floor and the departure hall at the other. Arriving passengers have to trek to one end of the upper floor to find stairs down to the exit.
The crowded food hall is abysmal, there is always a queue for the ladies' loos. It is just not a place anyone wants to linger.
