Auckland Airport

Not Verified | I took a domestic flight from Wellington to Auckland which took less than 1 hour. The queue to clear immigration in Auckland took longer than the domestic flight from Wellington (on 28 Sep 2023). The immigration area was busy but not any busier than many airports that I have been to (in Asia, US + Europe) - the only difference with Auckland was the slow speed and inefficient processes. Some examples: 1) while the general "e-gate" queue had hundreds of people in the line, the queues for "all other passports" occasionally had no one and so you have 2 officers sitting there with nothing to do. It's mind boggling why didn't the staff move a few from the "e-gate queue" over to the ultra-empty queue (especially those who are at risk of missing their flight due to the long queue at immigration). Similarly with the "express lane" - there were loads of times during my 1 hour queue at the e-gate line where there was absolutely no one using the "express lane" - again why did the staff not use their initiative and move a few people in the "e-gate" queue over? I nearly missed my connecting flight due to this extremely slow immigration clearance. 2) when I was departing Wellington airport, the screening staff said tablets could be left in the bag unless we had more than 1. In Auckland we were told to take everything out for screening. These little things takes extra time. Why the difference in processes? The staff were probably only doing what they were told to do - and so the above failings are simply management failures in my view. With such a horrible experience, don't think I will ever transit via Auckland airport again. The Christchurch airport as a transit point (for flights to/from Singapore) is just so much better.

Not Verified | I’ve just returned to New Zealand from an international trip. It’s a depressing sight when arriving at Auckland International Airport. Duty free looks like it’s just a few temporary stalls that have been set up. The immigration hall is still somewhat presentable but once you have passed through immigration it’s a dump. The baggage collection is a mess. It’s dirty with bags everywhere. Toilets are dirty. Once you’ve collected your bags (after a significant delay), you’ll walk towards the bio security and customs area. All flights arriving in the evening through to the early morning all need to stand in crazy queues so that every single passenger can put their bag through an X-ray machine even if you have nothing to declare. There is no express lane or green lane outside of standard business hours. The customs hall is a disorganised maze of retractable belt barrier stanchions. If you arrive during a busy period, the hall is packed and you’ll stand around for ages. The building is generally dirty and dated. Most African airports I have been to make Auckland airport feel extremely dirty and third world.

Not Verified | The airport remains a sorry story of disorganisation, crowds of people waiting for too few service desks or to drop bags. Customs is completely understaffed. That’s just departure! On return it’s even worse. I know of people who fly in to other centres just to avoid Auckland. The major pinch point is bio security - there is absolutely no excuse for the ongoing “temporary tent” inadequate staff leading to queues back into bag collection. It can take an hour or more to get out of the airport. Horrible experience.

Not Verified | The time to be processed for biosecurity was absolutely appalling, obviously totally understaffed for the number of airplanes landed. Of all the international travel I have done Auckland International has consistently been the worst. Yesterday it plumbed new depths of pathetic! People waiting around me were laughing at the recorded messages saying welcome to NZ, it felt like the airport was being sarcastic at best. Made me ashamed of NZ

Not Verified | To call this an airport is a disgrace for the name itself as this Airport seems to have excuse after excuse for why things are not running properly. Thought it was bad when travelling in May this year to Fiji, they have decided to scan your boarding pass before passport check and security and claim this is done everywhere in the world, actually no it is not, never been to any airport that has this as at Auckland Airport it creates endless queues, so once you have queued 45 minutes for the boarding pass check then you que again for passport control but wait it gets better because there are not enough security check points open the queue builds up for passport check also due to the staff closing down the e-gates as they see fit so you really need to plan to spend 1 to 2 hours in those lines and people around you are getting called for flights as they are stuck in the lines. But once you have made it through all of this you are greeted by white hoardings as the airport decided to reduce duty free offerings to one provider only plus many of the other stores are boarded up also as no one is wanting to rent the overpriced spaces. Then finally you make it to the food court area where everything is three times the price than outside of the airport, understand there is a premium to pay but some prices are literally 3 to 4 times the price of what is in the city. The tables are dirty littered with rubbish as no one cleans and much of the furniture is broken. The gate lounges are tiny and no longer fit for purpose in Pier A (Gates 1 to 10) as many people end up sitting on the floor. Arriving back is even worse arrived on a late flight from Sydney waited over half an hour at the remote stand waiting for stairs and busses, other airports have these waiting for the plane to arrive and not the other way around. But it got even better after buying some duty free and clearing customs we started waiting for our bags and it seemed other flights that arrived after us were given priority which meant that even though we landed at 00:27 the first bag arrived on the belt at 1:45am, seriously we were the last to get our luggage even though many others had already gotten theirs and left the airport. To make matters worse because they are building a new car park one has to walk for ages to their car as they decide to not run the courtesy bus 24 hours but only until 11pm even though flights do arrive early in the morning. Auckland is really one of the worst airports in the world and even airports in developing nations operate much more efficiently than this disaster calling itself an international airport.

Not Verified | The worst airport in the world even 3rd world airports are better. This is a National embarrassment for New Zealand. I would give negative scores if possible.

Not Verified | Worse than LAX. Queue for luggage screening on departure was over an hour then queue for bio-security check on arrival again longer than an hour. Just travelled through 4 countries in the past 3 weeks and nothing even remotely as bad as Auckland airport. Embarrassed to be a kiwi.

Not Verified | Absolutely horrendous queues, waited ages for my bag and almost missed a connecting flight due to massive queses that took an eternity to get through. Absolutely the worst airport I have ever experience

Not Verified | This is the most pathetically mismanaged airport I have encountered in a developed country. Longest time clearing customs and bio safety. Over 2 hours for me! The WiFi keeps disconnecting every 5 minutes and it is impossible to get any work done while. No one is at the help desk most of the time. No one is around to help passengers at the queues and direct them to the right places. I saw many people jumping lines at immigration something I have never seen before.

Not Verified | Worst airport post COVID that I’ve experienced. Really long queues - particularly immigration (both ways) security clearance (on departure) and bio security (on arrival). Awful and unhelpful staff, who are either rude and aggressive, or just stare at you blankly. The only success of the airport is matching the unbearable Auckland traffic.