The official opening of the second stage of the airport’s expansion was supposed to be held on March 19 but was delayed due to Covid-19.
Dunedin Mayor Aaron Hawkins, Dunedin City Council chief executive Sandy Graham and Treasury representatives were among those present as the site was opened.
"Let’s celebrate it, let’s have some good times ... it’s been a pretty tough year," airport chief executive Richard Roberts said.
Mr Roberts said the terminal was built for an annual intake of about 1.1million passengers, and it would probably have had half that because of disruption from Covid-19.
"We were under significant pressure [before the expansion], we were treating people like livestock ... to some extent. That couldn’t continue."
He said the airport had worked with airlines and their stakeholders — Dunedin City Council and the Government — to consult on what they needed to do to expand the terminal.
The terminal celebrated the region and Dunedin with street art images — particularly in the toilets.
The first stage of the airport’s expansion was revealed in August last year when two advanced body scanners were added to its security screening service.
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Good to see they included the clouds of pollution in the picture.
Airplanes emit gases (CO₂, water vapour, nitrogen oxides or carbon monoxide − bonding with oxygen to become CO₂ upon release) and atmospheric particulates (incompletely burned hydrocarbons, sulfur oxides, black carbon), interacting among themselves and with the atmosphere.
Every hour of travel (in a Boeing 737) consumes around 750 gallons of jet fuel but the greatest amount of energy is used during takeoff and landings, making short haul flights particularly energy intensive per km traveled.
For example:-
The round-trip flight from Dunedin to Christchurch is 469 miles and produces 0.2 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions for each passenger. In 2017, 20 countries in the world have lower annual per capita emissions than this flight, accounting for 5.7% of the world's population.
Just in case you are wondering…
…The round-trip flight from Dunedin to Manchester, England is 23,808 miles and produces 8.2 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions for each passenger. In 2017, 139 countries in the world have lower annual per capita emissions than this flight, accounting for 84.5% of the world's population.
"Let's Celebrate it"
Didn't Ms Crawford, back in 2016, order that the word "international" be dropped from the airport’s name because, quote; "it confused people"? Just saying..