Wellington International Airport guide

Wellington Airport sits on the narrow Rongotai isthmus, about 5.5 km south-east of the city centre. The site began as Rongotai Aerodrome in 1929. A major reconstruction between 1953 and 1959 removed Rongotai Hill and reclaimed land from Evans Bay and Lyall Bay to build the current north-south runway, which reopened on 25 October 1959.

The airport has one runway, 16/34, at 1,815 metres. Water on both ends and hills on the approaches make the short strip and its weather exposure a regular topic for pilots and a driver of long-running plans for an extension. An engineered materials arrestor system at the runway ends lifts the effective length to 1,947 metres.

Traffic is mostly domestic. Wellington handled about 5.4 million passengers in 2024, roughly 4.6 million of them on domestic flights. Air New Zealand and Sounds Air use it as a hub, and Jetstar, Originair and Air Chathams add regional and domestic links. Qantas, QantasLink, Jetstar and Fiji Airways cover the international routes to Australia and Fiji. The airport is owned 66 percent by Infratil and 34 percent by Wellington City Council, and closes between 1:30am and 3am.