Automation plan, for five small airports

Press, 21 July 1988, Page 2

Automation plan, for five small airports

DAVE WILSON

By

The Airways Corporation will automate flight information services at five New Zealand airports, including Timaru and Hokitika in the South Island.

Four full-time staff at Timaru and one at Hokitika will be affected by the decision, to be implemented by the end of the year. Whangarei, Whakatane and Wanganui will also lose their local flight information staff. In the South Island flight information for pilots using Timaru and Hokitika will be gathered by remote control and fed into the air traffic control Centre at Christchurch. Official announcements of the Airways Corporation proposals are being withheld until the corporation’s airport services manager, Mr John Mooney, has visited each area to discuss the matter with local airport authorities.

Mr Mooney said he would visit South Canterbury and the West Coast next week. On the future of aerodrome staff, he said, “There is the possibility of some relocation, and possibly some redundancies. Some airports are keen to retain an Airways Corporation presence, perhaps in association with other duties.” Mr Mooney said flight safety would not be compromised. The decision to automate Timaru was no surprise, said the South Canterbury Aero Club president, Mr Graeme McCleary. “It is not an essential service for us; we have alternatives within the

club. A boon to the club would be the removal of airport landing dues, now $B.BO a landing on top of an airport authority charge of $2.50 a landing. Mr McCleary said the charges had already driven the South Canterbury Microlight Club from the airport to a private strip, and both the aero and gliding clubs were contemplating a similar move. The chairman of the Timaru Airport Authority, Mr Eric Johnston, said the authority could absorb “very few people” from the corporation. He did not see the remoting of Timaru airport as a downgrading.