Up to airlines to use Chch—P.M.

Press, 3 April 1980, Page 3

Up to airlines to use Chch— P.M.

The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) in officially opening the first stage of the Christchurch Airport international terminal on Tuesday, said that the Government could not authorise spending large amounts of money on an extension to the runway unless there was tangible evidence of its value. Some of Mr Muldoons comments were reported in “The Press” yesterday with comments by the Mayor of Christchurch (Mr H. G. Hay) and other city councillors. Further comments by Mr Muldoon are reported below. Mr Muldoon said that it was natural that the Airport Authority, the Christchurch City Council, and South Island tourist interests were keen to see the maximum use made of the airport.

“The Government shares their concern,” he said. “Indeed, the Government, in its white paper on external aviation policy presented to Parliament in December last year, stated that it will continue to encourage the operation of both scheduled and non-scheduled air services into Christchurch. The Government can do no more than this.

“Local Interests must play their part in attracting custom. If the demand arises I am confident that the airlines will respond. “At present, six international airlines have been granted rights to serve Christchurch, but only Air New Zealand and Qantas have to date taken advantage of those rights. “Both Pan American and Continental Airlines have rights under the New Zea-land-United States Air Transport , Agreement to serve Christchurch and Auckland, provided both cities are not served on the one flight. “In other words, Continental, for example, could route any of its three weekly ser-

vices into Christchurch 'but Christchurch would, in those cases, be the only New Zealand airport at which Continental would be able to uplift or discharge traffic. “Singapore Airlines has rights to serve either Christchurch or Auckland, while Air Pacific, in. addition to its Auckland rights, has the rights to serve Wellington or Christchurch but has yet to opt for either,” said Mr Muldoon.

“During bilateral discussions with several governments in recent years New Zealand’s negotiators had encouraged their counterparts to have their respective airlines serve Christchurch. The Government could go only that far. “The rest must be up to the commercial judgment of the airlines themselves. Indeed it would be well beyond the Government’s authority to try to force any foreign carrier to serve Christchurch.

“Most people will be aware that Air New Zealand attempted to provide a link between Christchurch and North America by offering a same-plane, co-terminal service via Auckland to Los Angeles. The airline also offered-a DCB service to the South Pacific via Wellington,” Mr Muldoon said. But the two services, each lasting for more than three years, did not achieve the desired results, he said. The Christchurch City Council and others had been pressing for an extension to the existing runway to enable long-haul passenger or freight services to function without payload restrictions.

In pursuit of this goal the City Council had taken the important step of protecting the land likely to be involved. An extension to 3300 m would cost about $4.2 million, and before the Government could approve such ex-

penditure it had to be sure the expenditure was justified.

“Experience to date has not been encouraging for the prospects of long-haul operations into Christchurch,” Mr Muldoon said.

“The council places much emphasis on freight in its argument for a runway extension but the potential has not been quantified,” The point had also been advanced that . long-haul flights out of Christchurch, using the existing runway, necessitated a technical stop at Auckland incurring stop costs of about $lOOO for landing and other charges.

“This $lOOO or so is the cost of the additional landing in New Zealand territory and is not very relevant as it is not passed on to the users,” said Mr Muldoon.

“It is the level of use that is the determining factor as to whether any service, coterminal or direct, will operate.

“I know that there is a substantial surplus in the airport account but this in itself is not sufficient reason to lengthen the runway.

“Unless and until authorised carriers indicate a firm intention to fly long-haul services to and from' Christchurch the Government cannot consider lengthening the runway a wise investment.

“In general the Government is concerned to ensure that surplus airport funds' are employed to the best advantage within the total airport infra-structure. “Not all airports are able to meet working expenses from revenue and many do not provide an adequate return on capital investment,”! said Mr Muldoon.

“The Government intends to rectify this situation and to obtain a more even spread across the airport network of the funds available for airport development,” he said. i