Gateway to the world: a bus

By CHRIS DANIELS

A bumper summer tourist season means more passengers using Auckland International Airport will have to be bussed to their planes, rather than using air bridges.

The practice, common in overseas airports, will be expanded this summer because of an expected 30 per cent jump in airline capacity coming into Auckland.

Ground-floor lounges at the airport open onto the tarmac, where passengers will be taken to or from their aircraft by bus.

Passengers flying on smaller aircraft are more likely to be asked to use the buses, as big planes, which take longer to load and unload, would get priority at air bridges.

A decision on whether to use a bus to take passengers to and from their planes could likely be made the day before a plane arrived, said airport operations general manager David Hansen. He said buses had already been used at the airport, but the airport company would be looking to buy or lease more for this summer, when they were likely to be used every day.

Tourism New Zealand says it expects increased arrivals from three of the country's four biggest tourist markets over the next three months.

Arrivals from Australia and North America are forecast to rise 5 to 10 per cent in the August to October quarter, compared with a year earlier, and UK arrivals are predicted to be up by 5 to 15 per cent.

The other top-four market, Japan, is predicted to be down 10 to 20 per cent this quarter.

Three new entrants to Auckland skies - Emirates, Asiana and Royal Brunei, account for most of the extra airline capacity coming to New Zealand, but existing carriers are also boosting their summer services.

And it could end up even better than it looks, because the latest predictions are without the likely impact of flights from Australian budget carrier Virgin Blue, expected to start flying the Tasman, and possibly within New Zealand, this year. This could add nearly 40 per cent to existing capacity.

Another boost to visitor numbers could come from Air New Zealand, which will announce details of its new "express-style" service on transtasman routes this Tuesday, when the lowest, restricted base fares are expected to fall as low as $100 for a one-way ticket.

Air NZ hopes the introduction of its new fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft, the first of which starts flying in October, will help it cut costs, allowing it to slash fares to match the budget offerings of Virgin Blue.

If the move to a cheap, no-frills transtasman service stimulates business as much as its domestic equivalent did, then the number of tourists coming to New Zealand might surge even higher.

Virgin Blue, which is expected to start flying the Tasman in October, says its fares will be even cheaper than Air NZ's new discount rates.