The Hon Bill English officially opens $4.3m departure facilities at Queenstown Airport

  • New build doubles capacity of international departure lounge

  • Catered for winter peak traffic – Passengers from six jets using lounge in two hour period

  • Summer looking busy with 17% increase in schedule

2012-09-24 — /travelprnews.com/ — Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance the Hon Bill English officially opened the $4.3m extension to the Queenstown Airport terminal today (September 21).

The new build, a contemporary departure facility that doubles the size of the existing international and domestic departure areas, has been built to meet the demands of the increasing passenger numbers at Queenstown Airport.

Speaking at the event, Queenstown Airport Chief Executive Officer Scott Paterson said “the original terminal catered for 700,000 passengers, but during the last financial year the airport hosted just over 1,000,000 travellers, underlining the need to expand and provide visitors with an improved experience. These figures reflect an exciting growth that is predicted to continue during the coming summer season.”

“We’re also here to pay tribute to the increasing role the airport plays as a major contributor to the regional economy and the tourism industry,” said Scott.

All four airlines operating internationally at Queenstown Airport have also been impressed with the new build.

“This superb new international lounge befits an exceptional destination such as Queenstown,” says Rohan Garnett, Qantas Regional GM New Zealand and Pacific Islands. “This is both a beautiful and practical addition to Queenstown Airport which will not only allow greater numbers to go through but will also considerably improve the customer experience.”

The 570sqm expansion, at the north east end of the existing terminal, allows for extra security screening lanes and emigration booths as well as developing Air New Zealand’s Koru Lounge, at a mezzanine level, into a more contemporary area with increased seating.

The new build has provision for duty free retail areas to double in size in both the international arrival and departure halls. The Duty Free store operator, LS Travel Retail, has flagged substantial plans for redevelopment and refurbishment by the 2013 winter, this will raise the quality of merchandising and expand the range of cosmetics, fragrances, technology items and souvenirs along with the traditional liquor and tobacco products.

Scott also stressed that the new build had been built in a timely fashion to deal with the “exceptional growth” and the Airport was justifiably proud of what has been achieved with the infrastructure extension.

“Our airport clocked some record days during the winter with a dramatic 29% increase in flights over the same period last year. During August we processed 122,998 passengers and the new international departures lounge was opened to coincide with the peak numbers. On just one day passengers from six jets used the lounge over a two-hour period. Our busiest week saw 34 trans-Tasman flights.”

Scott confirmed an even more positive outlook with increased schedules for the 2012/2013 summer.

“The summer airline schedules predict even greater passenger numbers and the new facilities will undoubtedly come into their own,” said Scott. “January is traditionally one of our busiest months and currently we are planning on a 17% increase in inbound flights for January 2013 versus the previous January.”

Airlines operating at Queenstown Airport are also confident about the continuing growth.

As recently as this week Jetstar announced that it is boosting its flights from Queenstown to Australia from November, adding an extra Queenstown-Sydney direct service and an additional Queenstown-Melbourne service. In total Jetstar will have three weekly Queenstown-Sydney direct services and four weekly Queenstown-Melbourne direct services. These two extra trans-Tasman services will provide 37,000 seats annually into Queenstown.

Air New Zealand is planning on a busy summer schedule recently announcing that it is increasing its capacity on direct services between Auckland and Queenstown by 32%, including the addition of a fifth daily flight, providing a choice of direct services approximately every two hours.  The extra capacity takes the total seats available on direct services this summer to 5,200 each way per week.

Additional Air New Zealand capacity is also be achieved through the increased use of larger A320 aircraft on some existing services replacing Boeing 737 aircraft.

Since launching direct fligts, including Queenstown-Sydney and Queenstown-Brisbane services, in September 2009, Virgin Australia has seen consistently robust demand on the route. Working with its Trans-Tasman alliance partner, Air New Zealand, has also allowed Virgin Australia to offer increased capacity and greater choice of flight times to Queenstown.

In its own right, Virgin Australia has added almost 11,000 seats to and from Queenstown onto the route for the current schedule period (April –October 2012) compared with the corresponding period last year – a 37% increase in capacity.

“We remain committed to providing high quality, value for money, services to the southern lakes region into the future,” said Merren McArthur, Group Executive, Alliances, Network and Yield for Virgin Australia.

The new departure terminal involved many contractors. Project Managed by Mike Davies of Christchurch based company OCTA, designed by Wellington based Architect John Rogers, of CCM Architects, with Rilean Constructions the lead contractor.

“Built in a very tight time frame and in difficult weather conditions the build is a testament to a great group of people working together and we at the Airport applaud and thank all involved for their effort and diligence,” said Scott.

ENDS:

For more information please contact:  Nina Crawford on 03 450 9031