{"id":216295,"date":"2026-01-04T12:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T12:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/216295\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T12:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T12:33:08","slug":"lithium-batteries-cause-chaos-on-one-of-auckland-airports-busiest-travel-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/216295\/","title":{"rendered":"Lithium batteries cause chaos on one of Auckland Airport\u2019s busiest travel days"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cFor safety reasons, these bags require additional back-of-house screening by Aviation Security so prohibited items can be identified and removed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a manual process and can slow baggage processing during very busy periods.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AnAn excess of lithium batteries in suitcases caused international travel delays at Auckland Airport.<\/p>\n

One passenger described the scene earlier as \u201ccomplete pandemonium\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one seems to know what\u2019s going on,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe airport announcer… is telling people to allow more time for check in. Words of misery for those who have already been queueing for ages.<\/p>\n

\u201cTruly expected better from a country that prides itself on punching above its weight on the world stage. But this is a third-world airport experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Auckland Airport spokesperson said officials understood queues could be frustrating, and airport and airline teams are working hard to get travellers where they need to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thank travellers for their patience during what is one of the peak travel days of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re reminding all travellers to pack smart and ensure lithium batteries are carried in hand luggage, not checked bags, before arriving at the airport.\u201d<\/p>\n

The airport issued advice for passengers, saying they could play their part to help keep things moving at the international terminal:<\/p>\n

Booking a car park online, well ahead of their day of travel to maximise their choice of location and to secure a better deal;Allowing 30 minutes extra for their journeys through the international terminal building;Ensuring their hand luggage meets airline requirements;Completing their international departure card before reaching Customs;Ensuring any liquid, aerosol and gel containers in their hand luggage are not larger than 100ml, and are all placed in one resealable, transparent plastic bag (20cm x 20cm or smaller) and put in an easily accessible location;Following airline advice for recommended check-in times for passengers travelling to North America, due to additional security requirements for these flights;Asking the person who is picking them up to park in The Wait Zone, until they receive a text or phone call saying they are ready for collection.<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cFor safety reasons, these bags require additional back-of-house screening by Aviation Security so prohibited items can be identified…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[27309,74,2681,6224,51,38144,1558,27562,25346,12413,1887,4731,16492,49088,1019,1553,19136,14633,1362,111,43,139,69,1118,90,5270,274,12025,40866,379],"class_list":["post-216295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-added","tag-after","tag-airport","tag-airports","tag-auckland","tag-batteries","tag-been","tag-busiest","tag-cause","tag-chaos","tag-countrys","tag-days","tag-delays","tag-departure","tag-international","tag-item","tag-largest","tag-lithium","tag-made","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-on","tag-one","tag-travel","tag-wellknown","tag-worse","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}