INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27340, 4 May 1954, Page 12

INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTS

Harewood And Whenuapai To Be Used

NO SUITABLE SITE IN WELLINGTON (From Out Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, May 3. Wellington will lose its international air terminal. In future, Christchurch and Auckland will share New Zealand’s riternational air traffic. The Minister of Civil Aviation (Mr I.jL. Macdonald), who met interested parties this afternoon, said this evening that a full statement would be made in due course. Sir Jack Harris, president of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, who was present at the meeting, said this evening that Mr Macdonald told the meeting that it would cost too much to make Paraparaumu an international airport and that even when Rongotai was finished it was not likely ever to become an international terminal. The sum of £200,000 would be required to extend Paraparaumu’s runways to bring them up to DC-6 standard, Sir Jack Harris said the meeting was told, and to bring the airfield up to international standards would cost £1,000,000 —sums which the Government was not prepared to spend. Harewood was mentioned as taking Wellington’s air traffic to Australia, but, said Sir Jack Harris, Whenuapai could also take some:

It was stated at the:, meeting that a feeder service, for instance running to Harewood, would connect with a plane leaving about 11.30 ajn.» and four hours and a half later passengers would be in Sydney. With a faster land plane service across the Tasman, the time taken in the feeder service would be negated. “There was not a great deal we could do about it,” said Sir Jack Harris. “We simply had to accept it.” Present at the meeting were the Associate Minister of Finance (Mr C. M. Bowden), the Minister of Health (Mr J. R. Marshall), and’the Minister of Labour (Mr W. Sullivan) as well as the Mayor (Mr R. L Macalister), city councillors, officials of the Civil Aviation Administration, and the Ministry of Works. Hie general manager of the National Airways Corporation (Captain J. J. Busch) said tonight that he had not been informed bv TEAL how their new services would operate, but NAC would provide an adequate feeder service to whichever terminal was required, either Harewood or Whenuapai. Three Acceptable Airports In a statement issued before the conference the Minister said: “New Zealand has three airports today which are acceptable for international use— Whenuapai, Ohakea, and Harewood. A field to be acceptable internationally must conform within a reasonable degree to the standards recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, to which New Zealand is a signatory. The length of the runway alone does not bring an airfield up to

the required standard, as matters relating to obstructions in circuit and types of approaches have also to be considered.

“In the case of Paraparaumu, heavy expenditure would be required to provide the necessary safety measures to make that airport useable to a degree in any way comparable with other international airfields. “Rongotai, which has always been regarded as an internal airfield suitable when completed according to the present plan for the operation of DC3 aircraft or their equivalent, offers great problems in connexion with the circuit and approaches as regards the operation of the larger DC6’s. “The Tymms report of 1948 is ’very definite regarding Rongotai, stating .that obstructions in the surrounding terrain would render it unsafe for the operation of large transport airplanes. “It can be said that all who take part in the conference have a genuine desire to see Wellington linked to Australia by air when landplanes are operating, but many factors have to be taken into account before that can be said to be possible.” The 1948 report of thd United Kingdom Civil Aviation Mission, known fes the Tymms report, did not favour the development of Rongotai as an international airport. The report stated that there was no possibility of developing a safe land aerodrome for international air services at Wellington, even taking into account the clearing away of major obstacles at Rongotai. The report recommended that only Auckland and Christchurch should be international landplane airports, witn Ohakea as an alternative.