As the ski season ends and summer approaches, work has begun on Queenstown Airport’s new international terminal.
The project is expected to increase terminal space at the airport’s southern end by a third, adding 4,080 square metres of extra floor space and allowing Queenstown to double its international operations.
The outer shell was expected to be finished in June 2015, while the interior will be completed in three stages.
The first stage, featuring a new international arrivals area and departure lounges, as well as a new customs facility among other amenities, was due to be completed in time for winter 2015.
“The changes will allow the airport to process up to 1,000 passengers per hour compared to the current 480,” Queenstown Airport said in a statement.
Queenstown Airport Corporation chief executive Scott Paterson said the extra space would help cater for strong international demand for visitors to the popular New Zealand tourist spot.
“Our airlines are supportive of the scale of the new build which will give us the flexibility to move into the space when triggered by demand,” Paterson said.
Stage two involved reconfiguring the terminal space to improve passenger flows in the arrivals area, while stage three would focus on building a new mezzanine floor for potentially more passenger gates and lounges.
In May, Queenstown Airport was given provisional approval by the NZ CAA to start night operations.
Qantas’s low-cost subsidiary Jetstar is launching a new Gold Coast-Queenstown service, which will operate three days a week, in December.
The airport is featured in the October edition of Australian Aviation magazine.
