International Airport

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25608, 24 September 1948, Page 6

International Airport

The Government’s intentions about an international airport for the South Island, which so far have been obscure and ambiguous, have been made no clearer by the Minister in charge of the Air Department (Mr F. Jones) in his letter to the Canterbury Commercial Travellers’ and Warehousemen’s Association. Mr Jones explains quite clearly why Harewood does not at present fulfil the needs of an international airport, and what must be done to meet them; but he says nothing to indicate that the Government recognises the obvious advantages of developing Harewood to international standards. Instead, Mr Jones raises the old doubts and difficulties about commercial benefits, about technical and geographical . considerations, and about the peti- 1 tions of other localities in both the • North and the South Island for a second international airport. He implies once again that there can be no service from Australia to the South Island because the Australian Government has not decided that Melbourne’s airport will be recognised as an international terminal. But Essendon is an international airport in all but name. It complies with international standards and handles aircraft of the type that might be expected on a Tasman service to the South Island. There is no doubt that if the Australian and New’ Zealand Governments w’anted it to be an official inter- • national airport, it very soon would . be. Mr Jones, however, could not. be expected to carry the discussion ' of an international airport for the South Island very much further'

forward; for it has been made clear that the Government will make no decision until it has received the rfeports of the aerodromes committee and the British civil aviation mission. But the negative attitude his letter discloses, and the arguments he revolves, are not those of a man who has grasped the essentials of the case for a South Island international airport