Airport chief executive Colin Keel said ''Project Pathway'' was aimed at enhancing the ''park-to-plane'' experience and would ultimately increase terminal capacity and related infrastructure to cater for about 2.8 million passenger movements, or 1.4 million passengers, per annum.
Six areas - the border agency area; customer check-in; security screening; domestic gate lounges; commercial transfer area; and baggage make-up unit - would be upgraded.
Work starts this week on the $2.4million project, focused on the border agency processing areas in the international arrivals area and remodelling an area between domestic gate 5 and international gate 6 to create a ''swing lounge''.
Mr Keel said there would be an expansion in the area for Customs, Biosecurity New Zealand and Immigration in the international area and sensor technology, which displays wait times for departing passengers, would also be introduced for international arrivals.
A new ''dog rest'' building would also be built outside the terminal for the airport's working dogs.
Mr Keel said the work would be done in stages from now until April, but would stop between December 21 and January 14.
Work on the swing lounge would also start this week. It would be operational by December 15 and enable the domestic departures area to be expanded into the international departure lounge, and vice versa, as required.
''The new swing lounge will allow us to adapt to the shifting demands of domestic and international passengers throughout the day.
''While we continue to work on unlocking the constraints to long-term growth as part of the 30-year master plan for Queenstown Airport, we remain committed to ensuring the most memorable airport experience we can for our customers day in and day out.''
Timing for the remaining four upgrades has not yet been confirmed.
