Island Airport Ruled Out

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30965, 22 January 1966, Page 1

Island Airport Ruled Out

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, January 21. Department of Civil Aviation officials think there would be little merit in reclaiming land between Somes Island and Petone for an international airport. They consider the airstrip would be both unsuitable and impracticable. The scheme was suggested by Mr G. L. Barker, a Lower Hutt City Councillor and member of the Wellington Harbour Board.

He said the airport could bt built by levelling the island, pushing the spoil into the sea and building out from the shallow Petone foreshore. This would give a runway three times as long as Rongotai’s and able to take the big-

gest jet airliners. The Department of Civil Aviation’s director of operations and technical services,

Mr L. F. P. Taylor, said today that the airport visualised by Mr Barker would have little value either as an international or alternative airport. Similar proposals to build another airport closer than Paraparaumu had been thoroughly investigated by the department, he said. All the proposals had fallen through because of the unsuitability of the surrounding terrain. , Cross winds and turbulence [ would probably defeat Mr Barker’s scheme. If the prol posed runway was aligned . with the Rongotai runway [ there would be difficulties t with the flight path. If the runway was orientl ated with the best flight path, ■ pointing straight up the Hutt > Valley, there would almost i certainly be considerable cross . winds. r The weather would prob- - ably affect the proposed air- - strip more than Rongotai.

“It is almost certain that if Wellington was closed, so would be the other,” he said. “This would rule out any

value as a diversional airport.”

Hundreds of acres of land would have to be reclaimed for siting terminal buildings, maintenance and hangar areas, car parks, taxiing and bulk fuel areas. The cost would be tremendous. It was all very well to build an international airport out into the sea at Hong Kong, which Mr Barker had cited as an example, said Mr Taylor. Hong Kong had had no op-

tion but to build it there. There was no land nearby. “Even the most experienced pilots consider Hong Kong a very tricky airport and it is quite often closed by bad weather.”

Paraparaumu still remained the best site for an international airport. It would be millions of pounds cheaper and was at an “acceptable” distance from the city—comparable with distances overseas, said Mr Taylor.