Dogfight starts on airports

By CHRIS DANIELS aviation writer

The battle over the future of Whenuapai Air Base has moved into top gear, with Auckland International Airport Ltd joining the fray and pushing its ideas for the land.

The airport company has hired the services of top constitutional lawyer and former Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer to help it put its case to the Government.

Infrastructure investor Infratil and the Waitakere City Council want to turn Whenuapai into a commercial jet airport, which would break the existing regional monopoly on domestic and transtasman air services.

Infratil claims that consultants and engineering companies have been told not to work on the Whenuapai bid if they want to continue getting work from Auckland International Airport.

Airport chief executive Don Huse said the company had hired Sir Geoffrey and had been meeting with MPs, but this was part of its research into the issue.

"We are talking to everybody that we can identify that has an interest in this matter."

The airport company wanted to understand the perspectives and points of views of these people, so it could be better informed, said Huse.

"We clearly are an interested party in that process, for a whole variety of reasons, not least of which is that our core business is supplying airport facilities and services to the greater Auckland region.

"Anything that is likely to impact on that marketplace is of interest.

"We need to see what comes out of the submission process. On any issue where you might have two or more parties interested in it, it would be unusual for one adviser to be giving advice to two or more of those parties if those parties weren't working in partnership.

"Clearly the Government's policy position on Whenuapai is an important matter. Clearly it goes to airport facilities and services in Auckland and that's something we have a very real interest in."

On the issue of consultants claiming conflicts of interest, Huse said that advisers were working with them on the Whenuapai matter and it would be "unusual" for them to work with more than one party.

The airport has said its facilities were "more than capable of meeting Auckland's total commercial aviation requirements for at least the next 50 years".

It said earlier this year that it "could well envisage it developing the Whenuapai site as an "Airpark" including privately owned residences directly linked to an existing runway providing a facility for the expanding Auckland general aviation market."

Infratil, which owns two-thirds of Wellington Airport and 67 per cent of Glasgow Prestwick Airport in Scotland, says it will pay up to $20 million of its own money getting Whenuapai up to scratch.

It would, however, need commitments from airlines to use the airport before it would spend this money improving the site.

It would need jet services to make the airport viable, not just regional air services such as Origin Pacific.

The airport would be pitched as a cheap base for point-to-point air budget-style air services, such as Air NZ's Freedom Air and Pacific Blue.

How the airport copes with congestion this summer season may be a factor in tempting airlines to look carefully at using Whenuapai for their budget, low-cost, quick turnaround services.

Base prospects

The Air Force is leaving the Whenuapai Air Base and heading to Ohakea within five years.

The Government is set to decide what it will do with the land by the middle of next year.

The base has a total area of 311ha, with three runways in good condition.

Airport investor Infratil and the Waitakere City Council want to run it as a commercial airfield.

They say it is suitable for budget airlines flying jets such as the 767 and 737, to places such as Brisbane, Sydney and Wellington.

Submissions to the Defence Force on what should be done with the land close on January 16.