Dubbed the Clive Berghofer Maintenance Centre, the 5000-square-metre facility is the largest maintenance base in LifeFlight’s network and the largest hangar at Archerfield, replacing the old LifeFlight maintenance centre built in the 1940s.
The passenger numbers were bolstered by three major concert events over the month – Taylor Swift, Pink and Blink 182 – as well as the leap year offering an extra day of travel.
The airport is set to install a new 2.3MWp (megawatt peak) photovoltaic solar system, which it says would provide enough energy to power 1,000 homes per year, on the domestic and international terminal roof.
The carrier will use Wellington Airport as its home base for the ALIA, which it expects to receive starting late next year. It will initially fly cargo services with NZ Post from Wellington to Marlborough Airport on the other side of the Cook Strait.