New Airport Opened

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31211, 8 November 1966, Page 3

New Airport Opened

(N.Z. Press Association) NEW PLYMOUTH, Nov. 7. The New Plymouth Airport—expected to cost more than £900,000 —opened for commercial use today in dismal conditions. Three scheduled flights were late.

Crowds thronged the new airport at Brown road, Bell Block—just a mile from the old grassed airport.

Eight light aircraft landed on the sealed runway before 8 a.m. At 8.50 a.m. the showstealer of the day, a £250,000 Lear jet, touched down in a heavy shower to become the first pure jet and the first trans-Tasman aircraft to use the airport. At 10.15 a.m., Kotuku, an N.A.C. Fokker Friendship, became the first passenger aircraft to use the sealed runway. It was scheduled to arrive at- 8.40 a.m., but mechanical troubles delayed its departure from Auckland. “It’s quite a kick for me to land here,” the pilot. Captain V. Moran, said.

Captain Moran learnt to fly at the former New Plymouth Airport with the Elementary Flying Training School in 1940. At 10.35 a.m. the Friendship took off into the overcast sky for Wellington, via Palmerston North.

The Mayor of New Plymouth (Mr A. G. Honnor) officially opened the terminal building early in the afternoon.

Light aircraft from the Auckland, New Plymouth, Hawera and Stratford Aero Clubs landed at the airport in its first half-hour of operation.