Airport takes a stand on seats

The days of relaxing with a cup of coffee and a good read while waiting for loved ones at Auckland Airport are over with the removal of seats in the international arrivals hall.

The airport company has also removed an overhead television screen showing arriving passengers from international flights.

Kohimarama grandmother Hana Blackmore found herself trying to control a wriggling grandchild while standing for half an hour last week to meet her daughter arriving from Sydney.

"I was shifting and swaying trying to spot our daughter around others who were also jostling and moving.

"It was a nightmare."

When she complained to staff she was told the seats had been removed because of congestion and because other airports provided no seating.

"But this makes it even worse for congestion as everyone mills around the exit points. Why can't our airport be unique? Why not aspire to be different?" said Hana Blackmore.

Airport operations business manager David Adamson said the growth in passenger numbers had made the seating a safety issue, particularly during the hectic Christmas-New Year period.

The seats were removed last month but the stepped grandstand near the exit had been kept.

Mr Adamson said the seating was perfect for people meeting friends and families but other passengers looking for rental cars and other services walked out into the arrival hall to be confronted by a sea of faces with five exits and signage everywhere.

Passengers now walked out into a long corridor with one exit and a single large sign for key services at the end, which worked very well.

Mr Adamson said as part of the changes, the airport had installed extra benches for about 50 people about 8m away from the exit and towards the check-in area.

There was a chance of putting back some seating as part of a major expansion of the international terminal in the "medium term".

He said the camera trained on arriving passengers was now in an off-limits area used for customs and biosecurity, and the new corridor provided plenty of frontage for people to see arriving passengers.

Tourism Auckland chief executive Graeme Osborne said he appreciated that the loss of seating could upset people, but he understood the business pragmatism behind the move.

"The service the airport offers on the whole is global quality and that would seem to me to be a small sacrifice in that regard."

Mr Osborne said demands to provide increased customs, security, immigration and agriculture facilities took precedence over seating.