• Travellers to Auckland Airport and Mānawa Mall experienced long delays due to heavy traffic.
• The airport implemented temporary road closures and detours to prioritise terminal access.
• Mānawa Mall’s extended holiday sales period aims to reduce traffic congestion.

People travelling to the Boxing Day sales at Auckland Airport’s Mānawa Mall and catching flights are reporting long delays.

An Auckland Airport shareholder, Stuart Clumpas, said there are huge traffic queues at the airport “caused exclusively by the amount of traffic trying to get to Mānawa Bay and blocking the road to the airport”.

He said it was taking about one hour to get to the airport from both sides of the southwestern motorway from the east and from the north.

“I find it absolutely unbelievable that the airport could create such a traffic jam for itself.

“As a shareholder in the airport I am beyond furious that the airport has done something to absolutely caulk up its primary purpose, which is to be a transport hub for Auckland,” he said.

A second person reported traffic backing up towards Onehunga on State Highway 20 where it peels off to SH20a to the airport.

Traffic jams have been reported travelling to Auckland Airport today.

An airport spokesperson said there have been no flight delays at Auckland Airport today due to traffic issues.

“Travellers on the roads are currently experiencing delays of 11 minutes heading into the terminals from the south and the east – similar to traffic volumes seen at the airport on a normal day at peak period.

“We have a specialist team onsite actively managing traffic working to ensure that road users heading to the airport terminals are prioritised.

“While traffic in and around Mānawa Bay, which is located on a separate road away from the terminals, has been busy, the peak period has now largely passed with traffic volumes currently falling,” the spokesperson said.

The airport has put in place temporary road closures and a number of detours to prioritise traffic heading to and from the terminals, with remote carparks made available for visitors to Mānawa Bay and free bus shuttles to and from the outlet centre.

The spokesperson said to smooth traffic volumes heading to Mānawa Bay the centre’s holiday sales period is running across the week rather than a single day, with longer opening hours for shoppers.

Today stores will stay open until 9pm and from December 27 to 31 the centre’s opening hours will be from 10am to 7pm.

“It’s a busy day across Auckland’s roads,” the spokesperson said.

The opening of the new $200million-plus mall in September led to traffic jams on the first weekend.

The Board of Airline Representatives said crew and ground handlers were caught up in the weekend traffic jams, described as “appalling” by some visitors to the new shopping centre.