Master plan will help airport meet challenge

Press, 8 February 1985, Page 5

Master plan will help airport meet challenge

A Christchurch Airport master plan soon to be commissioned by the City Council might keep the airport in a position to respond to tourism changes. Cr Morgan Fahey, chairman of the airport and electricity committee, said yesterday that Christchurch Airport needed to do something urgently so that it could take advantage of any future developments. A similar plan is being completed for Auckland’s international airport. Councillors agreed with staff that negotiations should be held with the Melbourne firm that is doing the Auckland Regional Authority’s study. Based on differing circumstances and a job about half the size, the Christchurch project might be half of the Auckland plan’s cost, which is reported to be about $300,000. A master plan will help the airport authority get a view of total needs. It will focus on the terminal. A previous proposal for terminal redevelopment did not get past the Cabinet’s works committee. “This will give us greater confidence in all our planning over the next 15 or 20 years,” said the deputy general manager (works), Mr Harold Surtees, of the master plan. He and the airport director, Mr Hugh McCarroll, have already met the man-> aging director of AUSDA

(Airport and Systems Design Australia) and the manager of Price Waterhouse and Associates in Auckland about the service provided by the Australian airport specialists. The City Council officers said they had no hesitation in confirming the earlier proposal to negotiate a contract direct with AUSDA, instead of going to tender. The consultants were appointed for the Auckland project after development of a brief by the A.R.A. and Civil Aviation Division, and the calling of tenders worldwide. ' Price Waterhouse acts as the local representative of AUSDA, and provides the Australian company with support on economic aspects. Costs of the master plan and terminal development proposals would be shared by the City Council and the Government in their joint airport venture. Some concern was expressed that the consultants might not put Canterbury’s interests to the fore when they were working on plans for airport rivals. “They would treat the two studies quite independently,” said Mr McCarroll. Cr Rex Lester said that a master plan was a natural progression from other

work that had been done at the airport. It had to be done, and the Australian consultants had the track record to do it. “It is fortunate that a company that has just done similar work in New Zealand is available,” he said. Cr Fahey said that the field of airport planning had few consultants. Mr Surtees said the Auckland Airport job was within about two months of completion.

Mr McCarroll said that one aspect of planning was the inability to look at any change in isolation: “You cannot look at the terminal without looking at aircraft parking,” he said. The introduction of twinengined 767 passenger aircraft on the Tasman run later this year will bring more flights and the need for terminal changes. The City Council is about to go to airlines with travel research statistics that show the strong interest of South Islanders and Wellington residents in beginning their overseas flights at Christchurch Airport. Information on the preferences of overseas tourists is also being sought in a special travel research project. The Mayor of Christchurch, Sir Hamish Hay, said the study had already

provided the council with “hard facts” instead of concepts.

Cr Fahey said the most effective way of letting airlines know the facts had to be found. The council would be making a plea for a redistribution of services. He said that airlines should be interested in the report, and its findings could spur them to have another look at Christchurch.

The first part of a travel research project has been analysed by Mr McCarroll. He told councillors yesterday that the suggestion of a shuttle service to support international flights had merit. Air New Zealand might say that its eight services each day was such a service, but lines such as Mount Cook Airline and Newmans Air might be interested in matching their services to suit international flights. He said that figures in the research report represented a redistribution of existing air traffic. Any increase through Christhurch would mean a decrease somewhere else.

The report’s next part would be more significant because it would indicate the potential for more traffic from new markets.