Auckland Airport says areas for improvement, including communications with passengers, will be the subject of a full review of last night's fire incident at the International Terminal Building that affected about 5,000 people and saw flights delayed or rescheduled.
A fire broke out in an air vent and forced the evacuation of the terminal's check in, departures and baggage hall from 5.44pm to 9pm.
The fire was extinguished quickly but this caused significant flooding in the international arrivals baggage collection area with tens of thousands of litres of water spread by the automated sprinkler system, the airport said in a statement this afternoon.
The considerable amount of water - five to seven centimetres deep - needed to be removed and the area cleared of any safety hazards before guests could collect their bags and be processed. Due to the size of the area and volume of water this took the emergency response teams some time to clean up, it said.
The scale of the evacuation of the International Terminal Building was significant with approximately 5,000 people affected, 16 flights delayed and three rescheduled, said Anna Cassels-Brown, General Manager of Operations at Auckland Airport.
"Our number one priority in any emergency is the safety of our guests, airport workers and others on the Auckland Airport precinct. We are thankful for the emergency services response and assistance to bring the situation under control and that there were no injuries," she said.
"However, we apologise to our guests for the disruption to their travel plans, and to family and friends waiting for arriving travellers," Ms Cassels-Brown added.
"The Airport acknowledges that aspects of the emergency management response and the time to rectify the situation caused serious disruption to many people and we sincerely apologise for the inconvenience," she said.
"We know that there were areas for improvement including communications with guests, their welfare during the event and other issues. These will be the subject of a full review to identify areas for improvement.
"We want to thank our airline, border agency and service provider partners and their staff who worked with us throughout the night to help manage the incident and keep all of our guests safe."
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