6 minute read
KEEPING CONNECTED
IMAGES KĀPITI DISTRICTS AERO CLUB
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NEW ZEALAND IS NOT A VAST COUNTRY, but getting around it has never been easy; divided by mountain ranges and rocked by seismic activity, Aotearoa’s roads, rivers and rails have struggled throughout our history to keep us connected, and it has often been aviation that has brought us together as a nation and as whānau.
And perhaps that’s why many Kāpiti locals are concerned about plans that could see their airport turned into a housing development.
The story of the Kāpiti Coast Airport stretches back to 1939. With war clouds gathering in the northern hemisphere, the government of the day invoked the Public Works Act to acquire land for an airport to help serve the big smoke of Wellington. The Yanks were coming – and would soon all but take over Paraparaumu – but Rongotai, the capital’s airport, was clinging precariously to reclaimed land and not really up to scratch. A second airport serving the area made sense, and after the war ended and the threat to New Zealand subsided, Paraparaumu Airport became a thriving airport central to the Wellington region’s growing population. From 1947 to 1949 it was in fact New Zealand’s busiest airport, and it wasn’t unusual to see up to 20 DC-3s and Lodestars parked on its apron. And up until 1959 Rongotai had a grass runway considered unsafe and unusable during winter months, and so from 1952 to 1957 Wellington had two domestic airports with NAC running Herons from Rongotai and everything else from Paraparaumu.
Though the airport was sold to private owners in the early 90s, it remained operational and performing several vital functions, and as Peter Merwood, Secretary of the Kāpiti District Aeroclub notes, the airport is not just a convenient way to visit the Coast. “The airport has the obvious role of commercially serving locals and visitors,” he says, “but it is also vital for civil defence and aeromedical services. It is regularly used by rescue helicopters and fixed wing aircraft to transfer patients to/from Auckland or other major centres. Kāpiti Coast Airport is also on the doorstep of one of the wildest pieces of water around us – if Wellington is closed, Kāpiti Airport is the only sealed runway between Whanganui or Palmerston North and Blenheim.”
Keeping the airport in operation – and serving the community and the country – seems like the obvious answer. But nothing it seems is straightforward when it comes to regional airports, and Kāpiti in particular. “The acquisition of the land in 1939 was already contentious,” says
Aeroplanes on the tarmac at Paraparaumu Airport, in 1953. 1/2-058308-F PAColl-5713: Kapiti Coast District Libraries: Brown, Crawford, Edwards, Greig, Strand and Vaughn Collections
Peter Merwood, “the original sale to private ownership was challenged twice in court for various reasons, the auditor general has been involved, and the airport has even been the subject of a private member’s bill to ensure it remains in operation. It’s been a long story of questionable deals, but the thing to remember is that the airport also has a long history of serving the region.”
The fly in the ointment is New Zealand’s seemingly insatiable thirst for housing. As our regions grow, so too does the need for housing, and the green fields of Kāpiti Coast Airport offer prime real estate. But herein too there is a catch; Kāpiti is certainly growing, and when the new transport lines of Transmission Gully come online it will grow even faster, as many people see the opportunity to live and work as coasters and commute to Wellington.
“As the Kāpiti region grows,” says Peter Merwood, “the airport will only become more important. And if this airport is closed and down the track it is recognised a new one is needed – well good luck trying to find, let alone afford, the open land, accommodation, hangars and engineers that we already have here. The airport should be central to the region’s growth, not a victim of it.”
For local hapū Puketapu, the original owners of the land, the current situation represents an opportunity. Puketapu offered a respectable tender, which was not successful, at the time of the land sale and believe that the time is now right to address history while also looking to the future. “Yes, the business model of the airport needs to change,” says hapū spokesperson George Jenkins, “but that can be tweaked and there is huge potential here to achieve something that will be of long-term value to the entire community and also come down on the right side of history. The airport is an icon, and with the growth our region is predicted to see there is a genuine case for retaining it, but we need to have vision and look at the practical aspects as a people, not just as individuals. This is something worth much, much more than just the value of land.” Relax Unwind Indulge Atahuri awaits
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This is a theme shared by Peter Merwood. “Regional airports don’t make money,” he says, “but that doesn’t mean they have no value. Kāpiti Airport has been shown to bring in $4.3 million in economic benefit and to provide nearly 50 jobs. Add that to the vital role it plays in tourism, aeromedical transfers, civil defence and the safe haven it offers to light aircraft and it’s easy to see why locals want the airport to remain.”
For many Kāpiti residents the answer lies in some form of public ownership model, a model that has proven successful elsewhere. Taupō, Whanganui, Whakatāne - to name a few - all have airports administered by local government and that are vital assets to their communities and their districts. At the same time, pretty much all major New Zealand cities have secondary airports – Auckland has Ardmore and North Shore, Christchurch has Rangiora and Dunedin has Taieri – so it makes perfect sense to have Kāpiti Coast Airport to continue to serve Wellington.
And as Air Chathams COO Duane Emeny says, the Kāpiti Coast is a beautiful coastal environment that attracts people and professionals from all walks of life. “Our route performance post-Covid has demonstrated the demand for business day trips into Auckland, with the highest load factors of any of the three mainland routes, he says. “Often we will have a full plane with less than 100 kilograms of checked luggage which is a clear indication that passengers are flying North for work before returning home in the evening. And with Transmission Gully opening next year, the drive time from Southern Porirua to Kāpiti Coast Airport will be less than 10 minutes and open up a whole new market that are frustrated with the constant delays driving south through Wellington to Rongotai Airport.”
Kiwis want to keep on connecting – and as long as they do, aviation will be there to make those connections.
