Airways charges comment sought

Press, 3 December 1987, Page 3

Airways charges comment sought

The Airways Corporations may make a decision in January on the scale of charges it intends levying against users of its system. The corporation has had a draft schedule of proposed charges in circulation for several months and wanted a reaction from interested groups by last Monday. Mr Frank Baldwin, the corporation’s chief executive officer, said there had been constructive feedback with two followup meetings between the corporation and interested groups in Auckland today and tomorrow. He was unaware if there would be similar meetings in the South Island. The corporation’s scale of charges, which include fees for airlines and aero clubs using Airways services, are to be implemented by April 1 next year. Mr Baldwin said the corporation hoped to make a decision on the level of fees in January, but it would be wrong to assume the final fees were greater or lesser than those circulated in the draft paper. One area to be determined is the level of rescue fire services at airports. The Ministry of Transport has stipulated a minimum rescue fire coverage. But Mr Baldwin said that beyond this level, rescue fire services would be a contestable service with the corporation competing with outside groups to run the service.

“It will be up to the airport authorities what level of service they want beyond that minimum requirement.”