Auckland Airport to shorten runway

Auckland Airport's maintenance will shorten runway (Dan Lake)
Auckland Airport's maintenance will shorten runway (Dan Lake)

Auckland Airport will temporarily reduce the length of its runway to allow for special maintenance.

310 giant concrete slabs on the neighbouring taxiway are due for their once-in-50-year replacement.

Each slab is six square metres in size and 0.5 metres thick.

The runway will need to be shortened by 392 metres -- from 3435 metres to 3043 metres to allow the work to be done.

Judy Nicholl, Auckland Airport's aeronautical operations general manager, says it's the best time of year to get the difficult task done as good weather is essential.

Due to the location of the work site, the airport will be without its fog guidance system, which aids flights landing on the runway in bad fog.

This won't affect the ability of any aircraft to land at the airport, but incoming flights won't be able to use the shortened SMART approach over central Auckland suburbs during the works period.

Newshub.