Auckland Airport delays: Passengers say they’ve been made to wait throughout September

Frustrated passenger James Ryan described the airport as a 'madhouse' amid lengthy wait lines for arriving passengers. Photo / James Ryan

International travellers have been facing lengthy wait times to pass through Auckland Airport throughout September, passengers are telling the Herald.

It comes as one man described Auckland Airport as a “madhouse” and “zoo” on Sunday night after it took him more than two hours to make it through immigration and biosecurity checks when flying in from Sydney.

He described passengers as being desperate for toilets and children crying.

Biosecurity officials confirmed more than 3500 passengers arrived within two hours from 4.30pm to 6.30pm on Sunday and that this - combined with a staff shortage due to illness - led to long delays.

Auckland Airport said it knows delays can be frustrating but noted that international travellers on average take 30 minutes from leaving their plane to meeting family and friends in the arrival hall.

However, passenger Matt Wilson said he also went through “exactly the same” experience earlier this month on Saturday, September 2.

“We would have missed our internal flight although we had 2.5 hours between our Air NZ international flight and domestic flight,” Wilson said.

“We were eventually allowed to jump the queue into one for people who were about to miss flights.”

He said the long delays came despite him completing the NZ Traveller Declaration form on his mobile phone, which he expected would have made the process quicker.

At the biosecurity counter, he said he began to show his phone to the officer.

However, the officer “barked” at him, saying “why is everyone showing me their phone”, WIlson claimed.

“I travel overseas very frequently. I always arrive back in the hope that Auckland A+irport has improved but am always disappointed.”

Passenger Cilla is another who said her experience was “exactly the same”, with “nothing moving” and “totally disorganised lines” with “no flow”.

She filled out her biosecurity declaration online as well, but it didn’t speed up the process, she said.

“I also verbally said it’s like a zoo and clearly not good enough.

“We should have this perfect by now. I came out of Auckland airport thinking we need more international airports in the North Island.”

A third passenger, Paul, said it took him an hour to make it from his e-Gate immigration queue through biosecurity after arriving from Brisbane this month.

He said the whole time was spent in queues, because once he got to the final biosecurity check he was virtually waved through without being asked any questions.

He said that it appeared eight planes had arrived at the same time as his had landed, between 4.30pm and 6pm.

“So you can imagine the nature of the overloaded arrivals area of the terminal and the frustration that arriving passengers felt,” he said.

Shoné McGregor said she arrived on Sunday from Phuket in Thailand via Singapore and was “shocked at the disarray”.

McGregor said the online arrival declaration was down and so she had to manually fill out the form while in “snaking queues”.

“There were staff walking around with paper forms but no pens telling everyone that a paper form was needed,” she said.

She said there was also no line for people with connecting flights, “so I really felt for them”.

‘Madhouse’: Auckland Airport on Sunday

It comes after frustrated passenger James Ryan told the Herald he arrived from Sydney on Sunday at 4.40pm and didn’t exit his security checks until 7.15pm.

“There was no information given from the airport and the general sense from passengers was frustration and desperation for things like toilets,” Ryan said.

“There were lots of angry talking from people planning on making complaints and families with crying children.”

He said there was some construction happening at the airport, but no obvious reason why the queues took so long.

He described the airport as an “absolute zoo” and a “madhouse”.

“This is a very bad look for New Zealand.”

Mike Inglis, northern regional commissioner, Biosecurity New Zealand, confirmed the delays on Sunday evening.

He said four flights arrived either late or early between 4.30pm and 6.30pm.

“This resulted in a large influx of nearly 3500 travellers arriving for processing over a short time period,” Inglis said.

“Reduced biosecurity staff, due to illness, was also a factor, although we were able to redeploy staff to manage demand.

“Priority was given to travellers with domestic transfers throughout the busy period.”

Biosecurity NZ: ‘Working hard to speed up processing times’

Inglis said that delays and passenger flows are influenced by “industry-wide factors that are often outside of Biosecurity New Zealand’s direct control”.

He said his team had been working hard to speed up passenger processing.

“As a result, we have seen our average processing time reduce from a high of 13.16 minutes in February to 9.72 minutes in August.”

An Auckland Airport spokesperson also said a high number of flight arrivals combined with staff shortages due to illness impacted the speed of passenger processing.

Biosecurity officials say they have sped up arrivals processes but passengers are still regularly complaining about their experiences. Photo / Alex Burton

“We understand long waits can be very frustrating, and we apologise to anyone impacted.

“The airport team and border agencies worked as quickly as possible to process travellers, including prioritising elderly passengers and families with children.

“The vast majority of travellers are able to process through arrivals quickly, however, there can be increased congestion at peak periods.”

Auckland Airport: ‘Biosecurity important for NZ economy’

Auckland Airport chief operations officer Chloe Surridge said passengers take an average of 30 minutes from the time they leave their plane to when they greet family and friends in the arrival hall.

During that time they pass through immigration, biosecurity and pick up their luggage.

“However, we know there can be increased congestion at peak periods,” Surridge said.

“This is not the experience we want for travellers, and we apologise to anyone who has been impacted in recent times.”

She said there are a lot of teams involved in making this process smooth - such as airlines, airline ground handlers, Customs and Biosecurity New Zealand - and they were committed to improving.

“Unfortunately, these issues are complex,” she said.

These issues included a global staff shortage in aviation, while construction is also taking place in Auckland Airport’s arrivals hall, constraining space.

Surridge also highlighted that while a pain to many passengers, biosecurity is vitally important.

“Auckland Airport is one of the last lines of defence for protecting New Zealand against the risk of pests and diseases that could devastate our primary sector and economy, and it’s important the integrity of biosecurity checks are maintained.”

Customs NZ: ‘Range of complexities leading to delays’

A Customs spokesman said his team is supporting its partners “to address issues with arrivals”.

“As has been reported previously, there are a range of complexities contributing to issues affecting the arrivals system at Auckland Airport, such as flights landing outside their scheduled times which impacts processing times,” the spokesman said.

“A key priority for border operations is to continue to work with partners and to maintain border protection and risk management responsibilities.”