New Zealand's Deployment of Christchurch International Airport's check-in hall and kiosks are underway and will soon unlock space for hurried passengers to locate their planes and move to nearby check-in counters whether they are on a flight to Hokitika or Paris, according to Stuff.
About 70 percent of the project is done, and the rest will take until September 2012, Airport Chief Executive Jim Boult, said in the story.
The total cost of the terminal development will be $237 million, with the building program on budget and funded through the airport's bank facilities, Boult said. The owners Christchurch City Holdings Ltd (75 per cent) and the Government (25 percent) will be watching returns from the investment closely.
The new project was designed in consultation with airlines and border agencies to better fit international regulations.
The integrated check-in hall has 58 check-in counters as well as numerous self-service kiosks. Boult said while an integrated check-in would not work along the lines of a Heathrow Airport that gets 50 million passengers a year, it's great for an airport the size of Christchurch.
Travelers can now use a vareity of self-service options, he said. They can use the Internet to get a home-printed boarding pass, a kiosk for check-in at the airport or a mobile check-in if they hold no luggage.
Older people who want to talk to an airline representative can still do so, Boult said.
"For the likes of myself flying down to Queenstown on a turboprop now, I can leave my office five minutes before boarding, walk down there and enter the regional lounge, park my backside in the little Koru express Air New Zealand have got there. When they call the flight I walk out and flash my bar code and I'm gone."
