Auckland Airport is an international airport serving Auckland, the most populous city in New Zealand. It is the largest and busiest airport in the country, handling almost 19 million passengers in the calendar year 2025, including 8.5 million domestic, and 10.4 million international. The airport is operated by Auckland International Airport Limited and is located near Māngere, a residential suburb, and Airport Oaks, a service-hub suburb south of the Auckland city centre. It serves as the principal hub for Air New Zealand, and the New Zealand operating base for Jetstar.
The airport is one of New Zealand's most important infrastructure assets, providing several thousand jobs for the region. It handled 71 per cent of the country's international air passenger arrivals and departures in 2000. It is one of only two commercial airports in New Zealand that can handle Airbus A380 jet aircraft (the other being Christchurch).
The airport has a single runway, 05R/23L, which is Cat IIIb capable (at a reduced rate of movements) in the 23L direction. It has a capacity of about 45 flight movements per hour, and is currently the busiest single-runway airport in Oceania. In November 2007 work began on a new northern runway, to be built in several stages and to be used mainly by smaller aircraft, freeing up capacity on the main runway. The project has been repeatedly delayed and is now expected to be completed in 2038, a delay of more than a decade.
The airport covers 1,500 hectares (5.8 sq. miles). At present, the airport has an international and a domestic terminal. In 2023, AIAL announced plans for all jet services to operate from a single expanded terminal, with turboprop services continuing to use the existing domestic facility.
History The site of the airport was first used as an airfield by the Auckland Aero Club. In 1928, the club leased some land from a dairy farmer to accommodate the club's three De Havilland Gypsy Moths. The club president noted at the time that the site "has many advantages of vital importance for an aerodrome and training ground. It has good approaches, is well drained and is free from power lines, buildings and fogs." Prior to rebuilding, this was known as Mangere Aerodrome.
From 1948, the RNZAF Base Auckland at Whenuapai served as the civilian airport for Auckland. This was chosen, despite the hills adjacent to Whenuapai limiting the ability of newer aircraft to use the facilities, to the lack of cost to the Auckland City Council, as the site was already established as an RNZAF base. A September 1948 report by Sir Frederick Tymms recommended that Whenuapai Airport be replaced with a larger purpose-built airport located in either Māngere or Pakuranga. In 1958, the New Zealand Government commissioned Leigh Fisher Associates to survey and design the international airport at Māngere.
In 1960 work started to transform the site into Auckland's main airport. Much of the runway is on land reclaimed from the Manukau Harbour. The first flight to leave was an Air New Zealand DC-8 in November 1965, bound for Sydney.NZ Airport Australian Transport January 1966 page 32 The airport was officially opened the following year, with a 'grand air pageant' on Auckland Anniversary weekend, 29 to 31 January 1966.
Qantas commenced the first scheduled Boeing 747 service out of Auckland on Friday 8 December 1972.
Upon the airport's opening, the runway was long. The runway was extended westward to in 1973.
A new international terminal was built in 1977. Prior to this, all flights used what is now the domestic terminal.Overhaul for domestic terminal – Business – NZ Herald News. The New Zealand Herald. (6 February 2013). Retrieved 16 July 2013. After the news of famous aviatrix Jean Batten's death reached New Zealand in 1987, the International Terminal was named the Jean Batten Terminal in her honour. In 2005, the international terminal was altered, separating arriving and departing passengers.
Previously taxiway 'Alpha' (parallel to the main runway) had been modified and designated as Runway 23R/05L so that rehabilitation work could be completed on the main runway 23L/05R. After the work was completed, the temporary runway reverted to taxiway alpha, although the main runway retained its L/R designations. In 2007, construction began on a second runway to the north of the current one. Initially the new runway would have been long and catered for regional flights operated by Air New Zealand using turboprop aircraft. This would have cost $32 million and would have improved the efficiency of the airport by removing smaller planes (which require longer separation distances from the air turbulence wakes of preceding jet airliners) from the main runway. At a later stage, the runway would have been lengthened to to allow it be used by small jets (such as the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320) on domestic and trans-Tasman flights. In August 2009, however, the project was put on hold due to a downturn in air travel, and later in 2010 the project was suspended.
In 2013, the domestic terminal undertook a series of upgrades costing a total of $30 million. Stage one ran from January 2013 to March 2013, and involved changes to the drop off points and roads outside the terminal.Domestic Terminal Changes. Auckland Airport. Retrieved 16 July 2013. In the second half of 2013, the baggage claim belts were lengthened, parts of the apron was changed, and new corridors were connected to the jetbridges. The two different sides to the terminals now share a centralised security screening area following the upgrade and an extra storey was added to the western wing to provide an airside connection between the Air New Zealand side of the terminal and the Jetstar side of the terminal. The work took 12 months to complete.
The 2015 Annual Report stated that Pier B would be extended. The extension was completed in 2018, with two new gates (17 and 18) being built. These gates can accommodate two wide-body aircraft or four narrowbody aircraft. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Auckland Airport recorded its first loss since listing, posting an underlying deficit of NZ$41.8 million for the 2021 financial year after revenue fell 50 per cent as traffic collapsed.
On 27 January 2023, record-breaking rainfall flooded both terminals, forcing Auckland Airport to close for almost 24 hours and leaving hundreds of travellers stranded as all flights were cancelled or diverted. In March 2023 the airport announced plans to replace the existing domestic terminal. The project is estimated to cost $3.9 billion. The plan is controversial, with airlines expressing concerns at the cost and the resulting increases in landing charges. 15 September 2024, the airport announced it would raise NZ$1.4 billion in equity to fund a NZ$6.6 billion programme to upgrade the runway and airfield and improve connections between domestic and international flights. The programme is opposed by Air New Zealand and Qantas, who argue that higher airport charges will render travel unaffordable.
Facilities
Terminals
Auckland Airport consists of two terminals; the International Terminal and the Domestic Terminal. The two terminals are located approximately apart and are connected by a free shuttle bus service and a signposted walkway. The airport has 65 gates in total, 23 with jetbridges and 42 remote stands for aircraft parking. The airport accommodates large passenger aircraft like Airbus A380s and Boeing 747s.
International terminal The international terminal building has three levels, with departures occupying the eastern half of the terminal and arrivals occupying the western half. Departing passengers check-in on the ground floor, then proceed to the first floor though landside retail, immigration and security, and duty-free, before proceeding to the departure gates on the second floor. Arriving passengers arrive on the first floor, passing through duty-free and immigration, before proceeding to the ground floor through baggage claim, customs and biosecurity, and into the arrivals hall.
The terminal has 22 gates: in Pier A, there are 10 airbridge gates (1–10) and 4 bus gates (4A–4D); and in Pier B, there are 4 airbridge gates (15–18), 4 bus gates (16A–16D), and gate 19 which lacks an airbridge. Constructed around 2009 with of area, Pier B was designed to allow for the addition of new gates when required.Auckland Airport – Pier B » Hawkins . Hawkinsconstruction.co.nz. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
Each international pier feature a (Māori carved gateway) in the arrivals area accompanied by a karanga audio recording, symbolising Auckland Airport as a major international gateway and welcoming passengers to New Zealand. The Pier A tomokanga was installed in 1994, while the Pier B tomokanga was installed when the pier opened in 2009.
Domestic terminal The two previously separate domestic terminal buildings have now been connected by a common retail area. The Jetstar check-in area is located in the western end of the terminal, in the building previously used by Ansett New Zealand, Qantas, and Pacific Blue. The Air New Zealand check-in area is located in the centre of the terminal. There are nine gates that have jetbridges in the domestic terminal.
Jetstar domestic A320 services operate from gates 20–23 (jetbridge gates). Gate 24 (tarmac gate) is used by both Jetstar and Air New Zealand's A320 aircraft. Gates 60–63 were used for Jetstar regional flights, with 62 and 63 being bus gates in a separate building at the Jetstar end of the terminal. Gates 20 and 21 were turned into 60 and 61 during peak regional times. Air New Zealand mainline services operate from gates 24–33. Gates 28 through to 33 all have jetbridges, while gates 25, 26 and 27 don't exist. Air New Zealand turboprop services operate from the regional section of the domestic terminal, along with Barrier Air and Air Chathams. This is located at the eastern end of the terminal and consists of gates 34–50 (excluding gate numbers 37, 38 and 44, which do not exist). These gates are linked to the terminal by covered walkways, and passengers walk across the apron to the aircraft. Barrier Air also uses remote gates 51–59, whilst further to the east, gates 101–106 are used for business jets and long-term parking.
Passenger separation In 1993, the CAA instituted the requirement that all international airports in New Zealand must keep airside departing and arriving passengers separate. Auckland Airport was granted an exemption to this rule, allowing the airside mingling of arriving and departing passengers to continue, on the basis that all international flights operating into Auckland originated from airports with adequate security screening. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks and further regulation by the ICAO, the CAA required the airport to physically separate arriving and departing passengers by 2006. In the interim period until passenger separation was achieved, flights to the United States as well as all Qantas, and for a short time Cathay Pacific, flights were restricted to departing from gates where a secondary X-ray and metal detector inspection was operating.
To physically separate arriving and departing passengers, Auckland Airport decided to build a new departure level on top of the existing one, with the existing floor becoming the arrivals level. The existing departure lounges were kept by installing glass walls to separate the waiting areas from the newly designed arrivals corridor, and escalators were installed to transport passengers from the new departures level down to each departure lounge. The modifications to the terminal were completed in December 2005, and also involved the expansion of retail space within the pier by and an increase in the number of bus gates to four.
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