Airlines and Auckland Airport trade blows over travel chaos

Airlines say Auckland Airport is selling its customers short and travellers are facing unacceptable delays.

But the airport has hit back, saying airline tardiness is contributing to what’s been described as a “madhouse” by frustrated passengers.

In a sign of sharply escalating tension between the airport company and its airline customers, the airport today released details on international flight delays, which it says show only around half of services are running on time.

The Board of Airline Representatives (Barnz) represents around 30 airlines operating here and its executive director Cath O’Brien says travellers are facing unacceptable delays and Auckland Airport can’t process the number of passengers it has said it can.

“Airlines have booked and paid for passengers to arrive and depart from Auckland Airport. We need the airport to be well managed,” she said.

The airport had told airlines it can receive 2150 passengers each hour on a rolling five-minute basis, and arrival slots are booked on that basis.

Right now, the arrivals hall becomes congested with well below 2150 arriving passengers, O’Brien said.

“The airport’s own assessment of recent congestion events shows that the arrivals hall reaches inoperable levels when 1800 passengers are being processed through arrivals. The airport cannot deliver what it is selling.”

O’Brien says while passenger arrivals haven’t yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels, there is increasing pressure on the Auckland Airport arrivals hall at peak times.

Airlines have been working with the airport company, and border agencies, to do anything possible to ease congestion. Some improvements have been made, including the introduction of the biosecurity express lane in recent months.

“However, despite some of these improvements, there are times where experiences for our customers are totally unacceptable.”

O’Brien said the airport needs to quickly improve the situation or it risks damaging New Zealand’s reputation internationally.

She said the airport claimed part of the problem was that airlines run late, or early, and cause congestion.

“Flight times rely on a whole range of things; a flight plan, take-off weight, weather, wind direction and offshore airport conditions. All these things contribute to slightly variable arrival times. Airports around the world manage this well every day.

“While the current school holiday period is busier, arrivals will increase significantly over the summer peak.”

An Auckland Airport spokesperson said currently, only 51 per cent of international flights from May to August this year were arriving on time - within 15 minutes of that scheduled.

“Auckland Airport is proud to be the gateway to New Zealand for tourism and freight. As a system we need to be geared to efficiently manage flights, as the economy relies on these international connections.

The airport said it was wrong to say it is business as usual for the aviation system. The performance of arriving international flights is 11 per cent lower than it was for the same period in 2019 (pre-Covid), with 17 per cent fewer passengers.

The lowest-performing airlines arriving at Auckland Airport were on time 26 per cent of the time and the top-performing airlines arrived on time 68 per cent of the time.

The spokesperson said international best practice showed the top-performing airlines globally last month achieved an arriving flight on-time performance of 83 per cent.

“Auckland Airport is an ecosystem, and all players need to own their role in addressing the current challenges in the international arrivals process.

“This includes international airlines. International flights arriving early or late [over or under by 15 minutes] is one of several contributing factors to the increased congestion customers are experiencing.”

The airport said it works with airlines, ground handlers, and Customs and Biosecurity NZ to create a better experience.

Construction work is underway in the arrivals hall, leading to different queue layouts. The airport said it was trying to complete that work as quickly as possible.

The airport said its own analysis showed when all parts of the system were fully resourced, the system could meet the capacity of 2150 passengers an hour for arrivals.

The airport released further details it said showed that in July, on-time performance (the arrival of an aircraft within 15 minutes either side of its scheduled slot) slipped below 50 per cent.

Early flights were on average 24 minutes early and late flights on average 49 minutes late during July.

And on Sunday, September 17 (between 3pm and 10pm) there were a total of 23 international arriving flights.

Out of those, eight arrived off schedule. The airport said that combined with an unusually high number of employees off sick caused “unacceptable delays” in the terminal.

The median processing time for arriving passengers is around 30 minutes. This is 10 minutes slower than pre-Covid.

But over the six months of April to September 2023, processing times for international arrivals improved by 14 per cent.

“At the same time as airlines are claiming Auckland Airport doesn’t have enough space and is not efficient, they are also calling for us to halt investment in a new integrated domestic and international terminal which will significantly improve space, efficiency and the customer experience for travellers,” the airport spokesperson said.

O’Brien said while the current school holiday period is busy, arrivals will increase significantly over the summer peak.

“This summer, we need to deliver an arrival experience that says, welcome home’.”

Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.