An estimated 9.8 inches of rainfall inundated Auckland on January 27, 2023, usually equivalent to an entire summer精东影业 worth of rain for the city. The airport was duly forced to shut down when a state of emergency was declared, leaving hundreds stranded.

Now, the Auckland Council has revealed the airport精东影业 plans for the coming decade to reduce the impact of future extreme weather events. 

According to flooding and sustainability manager Ellie Callard, Auckland, like most airports, contains a lot of concrete, runways and buildings, but at the same time, the airport also makes a huge investment in stormwater.

According to a 2020 by ResourceWatch, the reason airports are threatened by flooding or sea level rise is the fact that many of them capitalize on low, flat areas, as required for long runways to facilitate takeoff and landing. This type of land is typically found near large bodies of water 鈥� wetlands, marshlands and floodplains 鈥� and such areas are especially susceptible to sea level rise and storm surge.

Auckland Council claims that the airport is investing in 鈥渨orld-leading technology鈥� designed to improve catchment, filtration and water quality discharge. The airport plans to use biofiltering technology and improved wetland management techniques that will capture, retain and treat stormwater on site, in a first for New Zealand.

AKL Airport is also working to restore contaminated land, historically used for firefighting training, and is working with iwi (Maori tribes) and community groups on coastal and community clean-ups, planting programs and wildlife protection.

Auckland Airport resumes operations after being shut due to floods

• Airport

byJean Carmela Lim

2023-01-30

New Zealand Customs Service identified the woman as Delphine Ganon, aged 42. Ganon arrived at Auckland Airport in April 2023, and was stopped for questioning by a customs officer.

After a resulting series of investigations and searches, Ganon精东影业 suitcase was found to contain white powder in the lining that tested positive as cocaine. Five cosmetic bottle containers also contained substances that tested positive as liquified cocaine.

According to New Zealand Customs, the 4.3 kilograms of cocaine recovered from the suitcase and cosmetics bottles would have produced around 43,300 common doses, with an estimated total street value of up to NZ$1.94 million ($1.17 million). 

It精东影业 estimated that the seizing of these substances may have prevented up to NZ$1.29 million ($780,000) of social harm and cost to New Zealand.

鈥淐ustoms remains ever-alert in our daily fight to stop the flow of illegal drugs from entering New Zealand. Our officers are well-equipped to identify and stop people who think they can bring illegal substances into our communities,鈥� Paul Williams, Customs Manager at Auckland Airport said in a statement.

Ganon appeared in the Manukau District Court on May 9, 2024, and was convicted for importing and possessing a Class A controlled drug (cocaine).

Four Vietnam Airlines flight attendants arrested for smuggling drugs from Paris

• Airlines

byJean Carmela Lim

2023-03-20

The airport announced that the improvements will include a new domestic terminal which will be fully integrated into the international terminal.

In its , the airport said that the project would replace the 57-year-old domestic terminal, at a cost of NZ 2.2 B ($1.37B)  and that it is set to open between 2028 and 2029.

The remainder of the cost, NZ 1.7B ($1.06B), will be for other projects associated with the integration, including forecast increases in construction costs and holding costs.

鈥淭his is a major investment for Auckland Airport, one which we have been working towards for many years,鈥� Patrick Strange, Auckland Airport精东影业 chair said in a dated March 17, 2023.

鈥淭he domestic terminal is almost 60 years old and needs replacing. It精东影业 nearing capacity and it精东影业 no longer fit for purpose and hasn鈥檛 been for some time. If it wasn鈥檛 for the pandemic, we would already be well underway with its replacement,鈥� Strange further said. 

Strange also mentioned that for over a decade, the airport had been consulting with major airline customers regarding the domestic terminal精东影业 integration with the international terminal. 

The terminal integration program will bring domestic travel and international travel together under the same roof for the first time since 1977, via an expansion at the eastern end of the existing international terminal building.

鈥淎 new domestic terminal integrated into the international terminal will make Auckland Airport fit for the future, providing a much-improved experience for travelers 鈥� something they鈥檝e clearly and repeatedly told us they want,鈥� Carrie Hurihanganui, Auckland Airport精东影业 chief executive said in the same statement.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e asking for a domestic facility that offers modern spaces, efficient passenger processing areas, improved bathroom facilities and faster baggage systems, as well as better connections between domestic and international travel and via public transport and the city.In short, renovations just won鈥檛 cut it anymore,鈥� Hurihanganui added.

The combined terminal is set to open at some point between 2028 and 2029, and will serve the larger and more efficient domestic jet aircraft flying to and from Auckland to New Zealand精东影业 other main centers, alongside international operations.

Auckland Airport resumes operations after being shut due to floods

• Airport

byJean Carmela Lim

2023-01-30

An estimated 9.8 inches of rainfall inundated Auckland on January 27, 2023. that this amount was equivalent to an entire summer精东影业 worth of rain. 

AKL airport was shut down after a state of emergency was declared, leaving hundreds stranded. Video footage uploaded to YouTube by Stuff.nz showed travelers wading through water as they evacuated the airport.

It wasn鈥檛 just individual passengers who had to leave the airport. An Emirates A380 aircraft coming from Dubai was forced to turn back mid-flight after it was announced that AKL airport had closed.

AKL airport精东影业 domestic terminal reopened mid-day on January 28, 2023, and a few international flights resumed on January 29, 2023. 

The airport has anticipated that flight schedules will continue to see disruptions over the next few days, and has advised passengers to contact their individual airlines.

More than 100 passengers at Auckland airport left stranded in corridor for hours

• Airport

byJean Carmela Lim

2022-10-04

This makes Delta the first North American airline to have direct flight services to New Zealand.

鈥淟AX continues to grow its global network of destinations that are connecting Angelenos to every corner of the globe, and Delta精东影业 addition of nonstop service from Los Angeles to New Zealand is in lockstep with the airline精东影业 commitment to expand and improve service to our region,鈥� Justin Erbacci, chief executive officer, Los Angeles World Airports said in a .

鈥淐oupled with Delta精东影业 international additions to Sydney and Tahiti, this is another exciting result of the ongoing and strong collaboration between LAX and Delta Air Lines as we connect more people across the Pacific and beyond,鈥� Erbacci added.

The daily LAX-AKL service, which will be flown using Delta精东影业 fleet of Airbus A350 aircraft, will operate on the following schedules:

DL65 departs Los Angeles at 22:30 local time, and arrives into Auckland at 08:35 local time
DL64 leaves Auckland at 15:00 and touches down at Los Angeles at 06:05 local time

The only other airline that offers a direct connection between Los Angeles and Auckland is Air New Zealand, on its Boeing 777 fleet.

LATAM, Delta announce non-stop LAX to Sao Paulo route as first joint venture

• Airlines

byJean Carmela Lim

2022-11-25

More than 100 Air New Zealand passengers en route to Australia had flown in from Samoa during the early hours of October 2, 2022. The flight arrived at 02:00 local time, and because AKL airport only operates until 23:00, the transit passengers were told they could not go into a departure lounge until 05:00 when the airport opened.

One of the transit passengers, Elizabeth Nanai,that there were only 12 seats in the corridor, so most of the 100 passengers were expected to sit on the cold ground.

“We could see the chairs on the other side of the big windows. The lounge was right there. There were over 100 of us and only 12 seats available,鈥� Nanai said.

Nanai added: “It was 2 o’clock in the morning and we had elderly and children on the flight. Yet they expected us to sit on the ground in this cold area – we’d just arrived from the islands, we started looking for blankets and clothes to use to sit and lie down on.”

“There was just no customer care. It was all about the rule book – commonsense had gone out the window,” Nanai said.

Anna Cassels-Brown, Auckland Airport精东影业 operations general manager told they found out that the flight had a late departure from Apia, Samoa so the flight therefore arrived late in Auckland.

“I wouldn’t want to say that [this problem was foreseen], I don’t operate the airline obviously,” Cassels-Brown said.

“What I do know is that at the time it arrived, unfortunately, the aviation security transit screening point – which many listeners won’t even know exists unless they’ve transited through Auckland, it’s deep within the international terminal – was not staffed by AvSec at the time,” Cassels-Brown said.

“It’s open under a contract between AvSec (Aviation Security) and the airlines, between the hours of 5am and 11pm.”

A statement from AKL Airport seen by The New Zealand Herald said that airport authorities are currently working with airlines and Aviation Security on a solution to ensure the timely screening of transit passengers regardless of their arrival time.

Auckland Airport pushes revamp of aging domestic terminal amid COVID-19 recovery

• Airport

byVictoria Bryan

2022-08-19

 

Passengers were reportedly asked to be offloaded voluntarily from the airline精东影业 return flight to Auckland on September 25, 2022.

A passengerthat shortly before boarding at JFK the airline called for 20 volunteers to miss the flight in exchange for US$1500 and paid hotel accommodation.

In an with Radio New Zealand (RNZ), Air New Zealand chief operational integrity and safety officer David Morgan said that despite the airline精东影业 detailed planning of the JFK-AKL route over the last two years, unseen factors such as 鈥渟ignificantly鈥� stronger headwinds on the route than what Air NZ expected. 

鈥淎s a consequence, the flight has taken longer and in order to provide the fuel load, we had to reduce the payload,鈥� Morgan explained.

The Federal Aviation Administration精东影业 (FAA) definition of a payload is the weight of occupants, cargo, and baggage in a flight.

This incident comes less than 10 days after a similar weight-related issue on the inaugural flight精东影业 return to Auckland saw over 50 passengers arrive without their luggage.

On September 23, 2022, another return flight almost made a fuel stop in Nadi, Fiji, but was avoided when changes to the route were made on air. 

As winter in North America approaches, the airline anticipates even stronger headwinds. Morgan told RNZ that a possible workaround would be to reduce the passenger seat cap on the NYC-AKL flight.

The service is operated by Air NZ精东影业 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, which has 27 business class seats, 33 premium economy seats, and 215 economy seats.

The New York to Auckland leg is currently the fourth longest operating flight in the world.
 

Air NZ inaugural flight to NYC completes return journey amidst luggage issue

• Airlines

byJean Carmela Lim

2022-09-19

However, over 50 passengers were left without luggage after a decision by Air New Zealand to unload excess luggage at JFK, local news reported.

“Unfortunately, given additional fuel requirements due to adverse weather, some customer bags were unable to be loaded in New York and we are getting them to New Zealand as soon as possible,鈥� Air New Zealand chief operating officer Alex Marren told local media.

Marren added: 鈥淲e are in touch with customers to update them and reunite them with their bags. We’re sorry for any inconvenience this has caused.”

Air NZ said that luggage was already on its way back to New Zealand but could take up to two days to be reunited with its owners.

Waking up in the city that never sleeps Our inaugural NZ2 touching down in NYC

鈥� Air New Zealand (@FlyAirNZ)

The new AKL-JFK route is the longest Air New Zealand has operated, and the fourth longest flight in the world. The carrier originally planned to launch the route in 2020 but delayed the plan due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Air New Zealand will operate the AKL-JFK route three times a week.
 

Air New Zealand completes first direct flight to New York

• Airlines

byValius Venckunas

2022-09-18

 

The route is currently being operated by the airline精东影业 Boeing B777-300ER aircraft, which makes a stop in KUL from Dubai International Airport (DXB) before continuing on to AKL. KUL and AKL will offer direct flights to Dubai when the A380 service starts.

The direct A380 service between DXB to AKL is the longest route on the Emirates network with a distance of 14,200 kilometers.

Our flagship A380 is returning to more destinations in December, with non-stop flights to Auckland and Kuala Lumpur!

鈥� Emirates Airline (@emirates)

In May 2022, Emirates and the Malaysian Tourism Board signed a Memorandum of Collaboration (MoC) at the Arabian Travel Market. 

鈥嬧�婾nder the agreement, Emirates will develop initiatives to boost tourism to Malaysia, helping to promote it across its network of over 130 destinations. 

Emirates鈥� direct flight EK448 from DXB to AKL will depart at 10:05 local time and will arrive at 11:05 the following day. The return flight will depart AKL at 21:15 local time and will arrive in DXB at 05:25hrs the next day. 

Emirates鈥� A380 service to KUL, EK 346, will depart DXB at 03:30 local time, landing at 14:35 local time. EK 343 will depart KUL at 01:45 local time, arriving in Dubai at 05:05.
 

Emirates partners with Royal Air Maroc; signs MoC with Malaysia tourism board

• Airlines

byJean Carmela Lim

2022-05-11

The Qantas Group posted a full-year underlying pre-tax loss of AUD1.86B ($1.26B), its third consecutive major loss from the pandemic, while its in statutory loss before tax for the full financial year of 2022 came in at AUD1.19B ($897,000) . The airline said that the difference between these two measures largely reflects the $686 million net gain on the sale of its surplus land, which was used to reduce COVID-related debt.

The airline精东影业 flying levels for the year averaged at 33% of pre-pandemic levels but finished at 68%. This was due to border closures and waves of COVID-19 variants gripping the first three quarters of the financial year, while the last quarter saw the highest levels of travel demand since the start of the pandemic.

鈥淭his result takes the Statutory Loss Before Tax impact of COVID on the Qantas Group to nearly $7 billion and our total revenue losses to $25 billion. These figures are staggering and getting through to the other side has obviously been tough,鈥� Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said in a press conference on August 25, 2022.

See

Shares buyback

In his speech, Joyce noted that  Qantas shareholders had supported the airline with AUD1.4B ($972,000) 鈥榦n top of the billions鈥� the group borrowed to help Qantas recover from the crisis. But Joyce said the airline精东影业 debt is now below target range, the best it has been in a decade. And with this, Joyce said that the group is now in a position to start repaying its shareholders.

The Qantas Group has therefore approved a shareholder return of up to AUD400 million ($278 million) in the form of an on-market share buyback.

Competition among plane manufacturers

Qantas chief financial officer Vanessa Hudson told press that the airline intends to run a competition between aircraft manufacturers to replace its aging fleet of 28 A330 aircraft in the next 12 to 18 months.

“That aircraft is heading to the end of its useful life. We will run a competition as we have done for the narrowbody fleet in the coming 12 to 18 months,” Hudson said.

A new competition could be a chance for Boeing to win an order from Qantas, which has opted recently for aircraft from rival manufacturer Airbus.  In December 2021, Qantas selected the Airbus A320neo and A220 families to renew its domestic narrow-body fleet and earlier in August 2022, it announced plans to strengthen its domestic freight fleet with Airbus A321 aircraft.

• Qantas apologizes to travelers for operational challenges

• Qantas trades Boeing for Airbus with new domestic fleet order

• Boom in online shopping prompts Qantas to increase freight fleet

• Qantas to open new purpose-built flight training center in Sydney

New international route and lounges

In the press conference, Joyce also announced that the airline will launch a new flight route from Auckland Airport (AKL) to New York精东影业 John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) starting June 2023.

Joyce said flying to JFK via AKL would provide better connection options from more cities in Australia, before the 16-hour direct flight to the East Coast in the US.

The AKL-JFK flights will initially start at three times weekly, and will be operated by the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, with three new aircraft scheduled for delivery in 2023. Sale of seats on this route begins August 25, 2022.

鈥淲e think this route will be very popular with Australians given the opportunity to connect via Auckland and it also gives New Zealanders more choice,鈥� Joyce said.

Joyce also announced that Qantas is investing in a lounge upgrade program, with plans to build new lounges in Adelaide, Auckland, Port Hedland and Rockhampton.

Qantas currently has 35 domestic lounges and 16 lounges at international airports globally, including in Australia.

New cabin crew training center

Joyce also highlighted in the press conference that with Qantas embarking on a recruitment drive for regional, domestic and international crew members, the airline recently opened a new cabin crew training facility at its headquarters in Mascot, Sydney.

Called 鈥楾he Longreach Center鈥�, the facility can train up to 200 cabin crew per day. It features First, Business and Economy aircraft cabins and galleys where new recruits and existing crew undergo service training.

The announcement came days after Qantas also confirmed that it will open a new flight training center in Sydney by year 2024.  

Concluding his speech, Joyce said that the aviation industry has been 鈥榮orely tested鈥� by the pandemic and that the company is 鈥榝irst to admit we haven鈥檛 gotten everything right lately鈥�.  Joyce said however, that given the plans Qantas has, 鈥榠t will get better from there.鈥�