Pay-per-visit airport lounge opens for everyone

MAARTEN HOLL/The Dominion Post

COME ON IN: The fee to enter the new lounge includes access to the snack bar, shower and toilet facilities and workstations.

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Wellington International Airport today opens New Zealand's first pay-per-visit premium lounge.

The "Wild at Heart Lounge" is available to all airline passengers and airport visitors for $25. A $19 introductory offer runs until the end of March.

The fee includes access to the snack bar and drink, shower and toilet facilities and workstations. The lounge is managed by cafe and coffee company Mojo.

Airport chief executive Steven Fitzgerald said the lounge provided a cost-effective alternative to Air New Zealand's Koru Lounge for small businesses or those who travelled less frequently.

Many Air New Zealand passengers also flew Pacific Blue and Jetstar and could not use the Koru lounge for those flights, Mr Fitzgerald said.

The newly renovated lounge was previously operated by Qantas which replaced its domestic services with budget offshoot Jetstar this year. Qantas frequent flyers would lose their free domestic lounge access in Wellington and Auckland.

Jetstar will also charge about $15 to access its new domestic lounge at Auckland airport due to open in February. Jetstar chief executive Bruce Buchanan said nearly one in five of the airline's passengers were travelling for business.

Common use and pay-per-visit lounges were common in Australia and Europe.

Mr Fitzgerald said he expected the 80-seat lounge to break even by March 2011.

- © Fairfax NZ News