‘Totally unacceptable’: Airlines and Auckland Airport in backlog battle

A representative for New Zealand’s airline industry has lambasted Auckland Airport for what it says are “totally unacceptable” delays for arriving international passengers.

But Auckland Airport has pointed the finger of blame back at the airlines, saying the backlog isn’t helped by only half of international flights arriving on time.

The airport’s arrivals process came under scrutiny after arriving passengers faced a two-hour wait to be processed on Sunday. The airport put this down to eight flights arriving off-schedule, combined with an “unusually high” number of employees off sick.

Board of Airline Representatives of New Zealand (BARNZ) executive director Cath O’Brien said it was frustrating airlines were facing a situation where the airport could not process the number of passengers it said it could. BARNZ represents 28 airlines operating in New Zealand.

Auckland Airport says it can handle 2150 arriving passengers each hour, and arrival slots for airlines are booked accordingly.

But O’Brien said the arrivals hall was reaching “inoperable levels” at 1800 passengers.

“The airport cannot deliver what it is selling,” she said.

O’Brien said airlines had been working with the airport company and border agencies to ease congestion, and acknowledged some improvements had been made, such as the introduction of the biosecurity express lane in recent months.

“However, despite some of these improvements, there are times when experiences for our customers are totally unacceptable.”

O’Brien said the airport risked damaging New Zealand’s reputation internationally, with arrivals set to increase significantly over the summer peak.

“We’re going to get much larger crowds than we’re seeing in this school holiday period. If we can’t find a solution to processing these passengers… it’s just going to be dire.”

Auckland Airport said from May 2023 to August 2023, 51% of international flights arrived on time – which means they arrived within 15 minutes either side of their scheduled slot.

This performance was 11% lower than the same period in 2019.

The lowest-performing airlines arrived on time 26% of the time, and the top-performing airlines arrived as scheduled 68% of the time.

This was below the international best practice, with the top performing airlines globally in August 2023 achieving an on-time performance of 83%.

“Auckland Airport is an ecosystem, and all players need to own their role in addressing the current challenges in the international arrivals process,” an airport spokesperson said.

“This includes international airlines. International flights arriving early or late (over or under by 15 minutes) is one of the several contributing factors to the increased congestion customers are experiencing.”

The airport was committed to making improvements and would continue to work with all its partners in the arrivals process to create a better experience for customers, the spokesperson added.

But O’Brien hit back at the airport’s suggestion that airlines’ arrival times were part of the problem, saying it was “super common” for planes to be early or late into a port.

“Flight times rely on a whole range of things; a flight plan, take-off weight, weather, wind direction and offshore airport conditions,” she said.

“All these things contribute to slightly variable arrival times. Airports around the world manage this well every day.”