Stuck in the frost: Faulty door leaves Hawke's Bay Airport passengers out in the cold

Michael Crooks was one of 30 passengers locked out of Hawke's Bay Airport. Photo / Paul Taylor

A frost that froze Hawke's Bay Airport's terminal entry doors to the point where they refused to open for early morning passengers has been described as a "one off" event.

Michael Crooks was travelling to Auckland from Napier on a 6.15am flight on June 20, to then catch a connecting flight to Australia.

Upon arrival at the airport at 5am, Crooks found 30 other passengers standing out in the frost as the airport's doors refused to open.

"We had to be at the check-in counter at the airport by 5.15am in order to check our luggage through on the 6.15am flight to Auckland.

"We had managed to roll out of bed by 4am and to arrive at the front doors of the airport by 5am, only to find, along with all other passengers, we were not allowed to enter as the front doors were locked. We were shut out," he said.

"Is this normal or do we have a Fawlty Towers airport?"

The doors finally slid open at 5.20am, five minutes after check-in, and passengers were greeted by the warmth of the foyer and airport staff were able to check in their bags without incident.

Hawke's Bay Airport CEO Stuart Ainslie said the unfortunate incident was a "one off" and was surprised no one had notified the airport staff at the time.

"Because it was frosty the door didn't open right, but when the staff realised they were on it within minutes, so I believe it's just a one-off glitch," he said.

With more than 30 volunteers on deck at the airport to assist passengers, Ainslie said it was surprising that no one had reported it.

"We're doing a regular customer survey and we're really keen to find out what people think about improvements.

"The doors are auto-slide doors, but in this case they got stuck.

"In the scheme of things, these sort of things do happen at airports every day, it's just unfortunate that this particular incident happened on a cold, frosty morning."

Despite the frosty reception, Crooks made it to Auckland on time and spent a week thawing out in Port Douglas.