New Wellington Airport bus service

A new airport bus service has been announced for Wellington, which has been without a dedicated route to the airport for more than a year.

The contract has been awarded to Transdev, the operator of Mana Newlands Coach Services. The service, which will be launched next year, will run from the Wellington railway station to the airport servicing 11 stops on route.

The service will operate as part of the city's Metlink bus network using a dedicated fleet of ten new zero-emissions electric battery buses and will have Snapper 'tap & travel' ticketing, credit and debit payments by eftpos and real-time information.

The previous city to airport bus service - Airport Flyer, was paused March 2020, ahead of the Covid-19 lockdown. In November 2020, the operator of the Airport Flyer - NZ Bus announced the service would not resume.

Roger Blakeley, chair of the Greater Wellington Regional Council’s transport committee said “A quarter of all eastern suburbs car traffic comes from the airport so having a bus service back in place and fewer private vehicles on the road will help ease congestion and meet our climate change obligations.”