"Queue Combers"
 

https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/...ssenger-queues

This is one of the more ridiculous Auckland Airport stories I have read (posting in this forum because Christopher Luxon and Air NZ quoted and referenced)

Aside from its arrogance and condescension e.g. "It isn't just a box with a couple of floors like a shopping mall. "It's not as simple as the bits the customer can see. There is all the stuff that goes under the ground like water, power, telecommunications and gas lines. "There is baggage handling and safety requirements…. And now we have a government that wants rail to the front door of the terminal."

[Really? There is a baggage system? Wow...who would have thunk it!]

They are so arrogant to suggest employing a couple of people facilitating people moving through the queues will solve the problem. Huh? If I read this right all that the "combers" are going to do is move people who are running late moving them to the front of the line. How exactly does that make the overall queue move faster?

For what is such a vital infrastructure business and vital cog in our economy, these comments would be laughable if they werent so depressing.

And this from an airport that wont even invest in a second bus between terminals or put trolleys in the very long walk to A380 gates in international (to note but two of the many failings of this airport)

The quotes come from a senior manager, which suggests their culture is rotten from the top. Basically, they dont seem to care about their passengers at all

If everyone ran late, everyone will be the first in the queue.

Like they refurb AKL international and they see to reduce waiting space, lounges and border stuff don't get more room and it meant to be for more passengers. And AKL must be pretty proud that they have managed to find a way using duty free stores to increase the distance between A and B without using more floor space.

Comment at the end of the stuff.co.nz story noted that (in the opinion of the commentator) queues are a direct reflection of concern for the customer - the longer the queues, the less the concern.

I found myself nodding in agreement...

The international terminal has been a mess ever since Sir (ha) John Goulter was in charge, and we are now all paying for it. To some extent the current management team has been caught short, but at least they have done something - Pier B extension, flat floor buses for tarmac transfers, braked luggage trolleys; all sensible things that should have been done years ago. But all John Goulter did was stick in a jukebox museum. In terms of something that will achieve nothing, but would make me feel better, is if they renamed the road in the airport precinct that is currently named after him.

I see many of the problems as having occured over the past 10-15 years - not before that.

If you read the annual reports most of the things planned by the airport have eventuated, and the only thing they have really got wrong if the growth figures. The problem is that rather being proactive with any of their investments, they've been reactive. The new pier should have been complete 5 years ago to allow for growth - not now years after it was really needed.

I understand the requirements to get the new domestic terminal right, but when you've been planning this for ~15 years you do have to reach a point where you finalise things. That point should have probably been 2-3 years ago, but instead we're now looking at a date well beyond 2022 for that. While the airport keeps sticking to its 2022 date for completition, that can really only be treated as a dream.

I'm sure there's a joke about gate lice and combs in there somewhere. :rolleyes: ;)

Some of the comments on the stuff story though belie a total lack of knowledge of how Airport Operations work - the number of people complaining about security checkpoints, which are MPI/Customs infrastructure and staff which the airport has zero control over is staggering.

The airport controls the amount of space available to those services.

Also AvSec does security. Customs, MPI & MBIE do the border.

Thanks for the clarification - I had forgotten Aviation Security was a different agency.

Some of the commenters already point out though that there is space for more scanners/xrays/whatever, just that "the airport" hasn't installed more - when it's not their job to do so (at least I believe it isn't - I know in US airports, many of those are actually airport assets rather than DHS/TSA assets but I'm fairly sure in NZ the government owns them)

I find international security to be pretty good now, especially when people are being actively told to use the multiple onloading stations at the x-ray machines. What we do need to get rid of are the "random" secondary explosives swab (according to an OIA request I made, they have never once actually detected anything). Things will probably get worse when body scanners are introduced from mid-next year though...

I think Avsec here in NZ do a pretty good job. Even at AKL domestic on Tuesday morning when I flew back into the country and queues were out to the start of the barrier and it took prob 8-9 mins to get through. It's just such a stark comparison to the US and my three flights there last week where every one was just an exercise in frustration due to the time they take to do things, and more significantly just how broken many of their processes are.

Don't queue combers already exist in the form of airline staff? I can certainly recall airline staff at one airport calling out flight numbers to people in outwards Immigration queues