Attack On Mangere Delay

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29791, 6 April 1962, Page 12

Attack On Mangere Delay

AUCKLAND, April 5. Representatives of overseas airlines and Auckland businessmen are surprised and disappointed that Mangere international airport will not be ready to take heavy jet aircraft until the end of 1965 This forecast, thought to have been made by the Director of Civil Aviation (Sir Arthur Nevill) means that Mangere will not be operational until 12 months after what had come to be generally accepted as the completion date.

Mr W. L. Rolph, director for New Zealand for Pan American Airways, said he

'New Zealand Press Association)

was distressed and disappointed by the delay.

He said that when the new jet airport at Samoa was opened next July. New Zealand would be the only country in the Pacific not able to take jet aircraft. The president of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce (Mr R. S. Woollams) said the set-back was most regret-table—-but not at all surprising to close observers who had constantly urged the need for synchronised planning so that full landing facilities would be available when the runway was ready The New Zealand manager for T.A.1., and Air France (Mr H. Sigerist)

said that the longer airlines had to wait to bring jet aircraft into Auckland, the more overseas funds New Zealand was going to lose.

He could not understand why Mangere was taking nearly five years to build when the new jet airport at Tahiti had been completed in 18 months. The general manager of T.E.A.L. (Mr F. A. Reeves) said that any delay in the opening of Mangere would mean that the airline’s Electra aircraft would be kept in service longer, and the projected completion date for Mangere would be taken into account in selecting replacement aircraft.