Chch company plans Stewart Is. airfield

Press, 26 July 1976, Page 5

Chch company plans Stewart Is. airfield

Stewart Island may soon have an airfield if an application for an air service licence, which has been made by a Christchurch company to fly between Invercargill and Stewart Island, is successful. An application for a licence by Rural Management, Ltd, will be heard in Christchurch on August 4. The company hopes to use two amphibian aircraft to service the island and will also build an airstrip to take regular aircraft. The application comes after the announcement some time ago that Mount Cook Airlines, which provides an amphibian service to the island live days a week, wants to discontinue the service. The managing director of Rural Management, Ltd, is a Christchurch solicitor, Mr J. G. Rutherford, who said that the company would "knock the top off a hill” on the island to make the airfield. He said the company

had a tentative arrangement with a landowner on Stewart Island who was prepared to let his land be used for the airfield. Mr Rutherford said that although his company would meet the cost of developing an airfield it would be a public airfield. Mr Rutherford said a simple, short airstrip could cost about $20,000 and an extended one about twice that. He said the cost was justified by the money the company would save by not using amphibian aircraft. The salt water led to heavy corrosion on aluminium amphibian aircraft, which in turn led to costly repairs and maintenance. A Mount Cook Airlines spokesman confirmed that this was a major reason for the company withdrawing its service'to Stewart Island. •Rural Management, Ltd, is an old company, registered in Wellington, which Mr Rutherford bought out recently. He said it was

mainly a land development company, but had used aircraft in connection with land development in the North Island.