Argument For Paraparaumu

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30937, 18 December 1965, Page 1

Argument For Paraparaumu

<Ncu> Zealand Prtii Association) WELLINGTON, Dec. 17. Air space congestion above Rongotai was rapidly approaching the point where it was becoming a safety hazard, the chairman of the Wellington City Council’s Airport Committee (Cr. S. J. Duff) said today.

He said the case for Paraparaumu was not based largely on the inadequacy of Rongotai to handle the new jet international aircraft. It was based upon issues more vital to Wellington and, indeed to the whole nation. Cr. Duff was commenting on a report which said the case for Paraparaumu had been based largely on the inadequacy of Rongotai to handle the new jet international aircraft. He said the facilities on the ground at Rongotai were becoming so severely overtaxed that it was a severe inconvenience to the travelling public from all parts of New Zealand.

"And here we are with Rongotai handling—somehow —3O per cent of the nation’s trans-Tasman flights and traffic,” he said. “So it really isn’t a question of what, in fact, can land at Rongotai. It’s a question of

what will be permitted by the Civil Aviation Department to land at Rongotai.

"And the way thinp are going, a halt must be called on safety grounds before very long.”

Rongotai was the country's busiest single air terminal—the most important single air terminal for the whole country. Its problems—and the problems of all air travellers —could not be solved simply by new techniques in aircraft construction whether they were vertical take-off types or any other new developments in design. / Cr. Duff said the original concept of air terminals in Wellington drawn up by overseas consultants, was for two complementary airstrips—one at Rongotai, the other at Paraparaumu. An analysis of the weather showed the "see-saw” action of climate between these two places would provide Wellington with one of the highest potentials in the world for operational regularity of its air services.