Auckland Airport is ready to welcome more airlines on the trans-Tasman route as Jetstar and Qantas resume services this
Friday, with various technology trials underway at the airport to protect the health and safety of passengers.
The Jetstar and Qantas restart brings the number of airlines operating scheduled services across the Tasman to four,
joining Air New Zealand and Qatar in offering passengers more choice on the route.
While passenger numbers remain low – only around 3,700 international seats are available each week – Auckland Airport is
ensuring everyone who comes through the terminal is making that journey confident in the protections put in place to
ensure their health and safety.
This includes measures currently in place for transit passengers, who are processed through entirely separate areas of
the terminal from passengers departing New Zealand – including passengers departing to Australia under the new
quarantine-free arrangements.
From midnight Friday, passengers from New Zealand can travel to New South Wales and Northern Territory without needing
to quarantine for 14 days. The requirement for all arrivals into New Zealand to undertake a 14-day quarantine remains in
place.
Safeguarding the wellbeing of staff and travellers has always been at the heart of airport processes and procedures,
said General Manager Operations, Anna Cassels-Brown, with the outbreak of COVID-19 adding another level to those
safeguards.
“Airports have a vital role to play in managing the risks of COVID-19,” said Ms Cassels-Brown. “Building a layered
approach to protecting the health and safety of people in our terminals has been a major focus for Auckland Airport
since the early days of the pandemic.”
At Auckland Airport, health and safety standards are aligned with Ministry of Health recommendations, and have been
informed by global guidelines developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a UN specialised
agency, which incorporate the latest medical and operational advice to mitigate against the spread of COVID-19 in the
airport environment.
“This is a serious virus, but we know there’s a lot we can do to manage the risk. So, the focus for us has been to
introduce a range of protection measures around the terminal that reduce the risk of contracting or transmitting
COVID-19 at the airport, and provide a safe environment for people to work in or travel through.”
Since the early days of the pandemic anti-viral cleaning throughout the terminals has been undertaken more frequently,
with a focus on high-touch areas. On-the-spot cleaning audits are carried out using handheld, digital scanners that
ensure the cleaning regime is effectively killing germs.
In addition, trials are currently underway on a range of cleaning technology solutions aimed at providing an additional
level of hygiene assurance. Ultraviolet light technology, commonly used to sterilise surgical equipment, installed on
escalator handrails, antimicrobial shields added to elevator buttons, and thermal-imaging cameras that can detect
someone with a fever amongst a group of people are some of the technology solutions being tested by Auckland Airport.
“These are really unobtrusive ways we can improve the comfort of travellers in this post-COVID environment and are
changes that for the most part will go unnoticed,” said Ms Cassels-Brown.
“We know our cleaning regime is really effective, but the technology solutions provide another layer of protection so
we’ll continuing exploring opportunities to use technology in this way.”
“We’ve also got a workforce that has played it’s part in stopping the spread of COVID-19, and 100% of our frontline
staff who interact with arriving passengers continue to be regularly tested in line with the Ministry of Health
requirements,” said Ms Cassels-Brown.
“Our people understand the importance that good hygiene, PPE and testing play in reducing the spread of the virus and
I’m really proud of how they’ve adapted to this new, and sometimes quite challenging, operating environment.”
There are currently 15 retail and food and beverage outlets open for departing passengers both before and after
security. Both terminals are also open to everybody under Alert Level 1.