Rotorua Airport will remain open to support essential services as New Zealand moves in to Alert Level 4 tonight.
Rotorua Airport Chief Executive Mark Gibb says the airport is currently operating at Alert Level 3 and will move to Alert Level 4 at 11.59pm tonight – in line with the Government’s announcement.
“Our immediate focus is to support essential travel to enable the travelling public, friends and whānau to get to where they need to be,” says Gibb.
“From Thursday, we will move to our role as a life line utility under Alert Level 4. This means that Airport operations will be restricted to supporting a limited domestic passenger network delivering essential travel, medical flights and aviation activity and support relating to key government agencies.
“We have a number of domestic flights due in over the next few days as New Zealanders make their way home but after that, we expect to have a low level of activity and travel will only be for essential services.”
Mr Gibb says under Alert Level 4, access to the terminal will be restricted to key staff and travellers only and all airport retail outlets will be closed. Key staff, such as fire and rescue crews, will continue to be on site to ensure that the Airport remains operational.
“The safety of our staff, and those who are having to use the airport for essential travel, is a priority. We’ve taken extra measures, including increased cleaning, to protect people and we’ve activated our business continuity plan to ensure that we can continue to remain operational for key flights if and when they are needed, such as medical flights.”
