Traffic work at airport

Queenstown Airport is embarking on a $2.7million project to expand its car parking and change its internal roading in a bid to improve traffic flows.

A new roundabout near the airport's entrance and the reinstatement of a public two-minute drop-off zone are the main features of the work, which will begin in the middle of next month.

It also includes the creation of 50 more staff car parks by the St John building and a new, larger coach park.

The work will be carried out in five stages to minimise disruption, and is expected to be completed in June.

Queenstown Airport chief executive Colin Keel said the project was a response to increased demand for airport car parking and would ``alleviate a lot of the issues people have experienced''.

Reinstating the drop-off zone directly outside the terminal had been a ``long time coming'', but it had been necessary to make other changes first.

Mr Keel said it was removed in late 2014 because of safety concerns, and because motorists had been leaving their vehicles there for extended periods while waiting to pick up arriving passengers.

By the time it was reinstated in June, those concerns would have been addressed by a series of changes to traffic flow management and airport operations.

It would become a ``hug and drop'' zone only and staff would be stationed in the forecourt at all times to ensure it was not used for pick-ups.

The new roundabout, which would be built near the airport entrance, would reduce congestion, allow easier access to the long-term car park and provide an easier exit for coaches and rental cars, which would no longer need to use the airport's ring road. By the time the project was completed, the airport would have spent more than $4million in the space of two years on parking and traffic flow changes, he said.

Last month, the airport announced the creation of a ``park and ride'' shuttle service between the airport and a 150-space car park on Brookes Rd, behind Mega Mitre 10 and Pak'n Save.

Aimed at those parking for three days or more, it is expected to start operating in late March or April.

Last November, Frankton Community Association chairman Glyn Lewers told a meeting of Frankton residents the airport was ``not pulling its weight and not doing right by the community'' in responding to traffic and parking congestion on State Highway 6 near the airport.