Momona Airport

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29829, 23 May 1962, Page 12

Momona Airport

The opening of Dunedin’s Momona airport for scheduled services is an important event in the development of New Zealand’s transport system. More than a decade before work on Momona was begun, the Tymms report summarised bluntly the dangers and inadequacies of Taieri, which Momona replaces. Dunedin, because of its topography and climate, presented airport planners with special difficulties, for all of which there cannot be a complete solution. When the Labour Government almost three years ago authorised the construction of Momona, it could not have postponed the decision without causing economic injury both to Otago and to the National Airways Corporation. But even after controversy about the site had subsided, and the final scheme had been launched, Otago residents were irked by the prospect that for various reasons the provision of modern facilities would be further delayed. The removal of most of these obstacles is welcome news.

While the travelling public will appreciate the im-

pressive amenities arid convenience of Momona, the National Airways Corporation has equally good grounds for satisfaction inj the scope offered for operational improvements, including regularity of flights. Without suitable airports the corporation cannot modernise its services as it would wish; and its choice of replacement aircraft is seriously reduced. Because DC-3 airliners are obsolete, there was the possibility that Dunedin would be deprived of scheduled airline services if a better airport was not constructed. Initially, services to and from Momona will be operated with Friendship aircraft. Within a few months, when full navigational aids are working, Viscounts will take up the running. Experience elsewhere suggests that the result will be a spectacular growth of air traffic to and from Dunedin. That a bus' trip from Dunedin city to Momona takes almost asj long as a Viscount flight! from Christchurch Inter- i national Airport to Momona' is a wry commentary oni progress.