After last year’s Covid-19 lockdown the airport put together a plan that laid out how it would operate under different alert levels.
Last week, following the announcement of the lockdown, the airport followed the plan and quickly rearranged the terminal to suit, chief executive Richard Roberts said.
The airport was only operating on the ground floor of the terminal and passengers were being escorted on to the tarmac to board their flight from there.
Yesterday the airport had its first flight in three days arrive and leave, an Air New Zealand flight from Christchurch with only essential travellers on board.
The plane was on the ground for less than an hour and returned to Christchurch, where passengers were able to connect with other flights around the country.
Jetstar is not flying in and out of Dunedin during Alert Level 4.
Only ticket holders are allowed into the terminal. Police and Civil Aviation Authority officers were checking to ensure only travellers with essential reasons were flying.
Air travel under Alert Level 4 is restricted to people undertaking Level 4 services, freight or other permitted reasons such as providing urgent care for a child or person in a critical or terminally ill condition.
When the Otago Daily Times visited Dunedin Airport yesterday some people were turned away because they were not deemed essential travellers.
The ongoing schedule for flights was dependent on yesterday’s Government announcement on alert levels, Mr Roberts said.
During last year’s lockdown, the airport’s fire crew were only coming in once a day, but this time they were coming in twice, once when a flight arrived and the second time for wildlife control.
"We realised after last year we had a bit too much wildlife around, so we thought we needed to control that this time," he said.
Mr Roberts said the airport’s passenger numbers almost returned to 100% of pre-Covid-19 levels in July but the latest lockdown would affect that.
