Don't be a nuisance, regular flyers told

A $47 million upgrade at Auckland International Airport should mean less congestion and better security for travellers, with the opening of a new top deck on the "pier" used to get to and from departure gates.

Outgoing passengers are being told to allow a few extra minutes to get to their gate until construction work is finished at the end of the year.

This warning particularly applies to regular travellers, who usually have a good idea about how long it takes to get to their plane.

Airport officials report that it is not the novice travellers, but regular flyers who usually hold up aircraft, as they tend to cut things too fine, leaving it till the last minute before heading to their departure gate.

Crowds in the airport's pier should be cut now the upstairs deck is open, since only incoming passengers will be using the downstairs floor - and usually walking in one direction.

Incoming passengers will still be able to buy their duty-free booze and perfume, but the focus for shops and bars is on departing passengers, who are usually forced to stay in the airport much longer.

The airport company says once the passengers are fully separated, there will be less queuing and congestion.

Because outgoing travellers now mingle with incoming, there is a need for secondary security screening before boarding some flights - particularly those going to the United States.

Passengers waiting for their flights can now sit at a new bar, looking out through large glass windows across the airfield towards the Manukau Heads. Twenty-seven large plasma video screens have been installed along the walls and will show flight information, entertainment and advertising.

Designers of the new deck have decided to put the "food and beverage" retailers closer to one another.

Incoming passengers will, for the next few months, be able to get upstairs to see the new deck, but are not being encouraged to do so.

Most of the construction work still to be finished is on the lower deck, where a glass corridor is being built.

Passengers will walk down this after they disembark, before heading into the duty free, customs and Customs/Maf screening areas.

The airport has been operating under a waiver from the Civil Aviation Authority, allowing it to keep running without passenger separation, but this became untenable in the post -September 11 world.

In May last year, Qantas chairwoman Margaret Jackson took a swipe at the airport, saying the lack of passenger separation meant it was a weak link in terms of global terrorism.

Once the whole project is finished at the end of this year, incoming passengers will arrive, get off their plane and walk through the pier in the glass corridor.

Outgoing passengers will "drop down" on to the ground level through escalators and lifts, where they will wait in secure gate lounges before being called to board their aircraft.

There are 600 sq m of new retail space in the pier, important for a company that earns more from what it calls "non-aeronautical" activities such as shops and car parks than it does from aircraft operations.

Latest financial results showed $84.7 million - 30 per cent of annual company revenue - coming from its retail operations.

Other big developments at the airport include building facilities that will allow the next generation of aircraft - the Airbus A380 superjumbo - to dock easily and refuel.

Baggage screening

Separating incoming and outgoing passengers is designed to quarantine people who could be arriving from secondary airports that may have poor security.

Aircraft take off from Auckland International Airport and fly direct to the United States. Security officials are concerned that a passenger - who has already been screened, may have a weapon or bomb slipped to them by someone just arrived from a badly secured airport.

Airports around the world deal with this issue in different ways, some screening passengers just before they enter the gate lounge, while others keep incoming and outgoing passengers apart from the minute they enter the "airside" part of the terminal.

Flights to the US leaving from Auckland currently go through a second level of screening, where passengers are checked just before boarding the plane.

Soon all bags will be x-rayed before being loaded onto planes. Once in place, this will allow some airlines to stop screening bags at check-in.