Jetstar eyes Whenuapai for Auckland flights

An Airforce Boeing 757 touches down at the Whenuapai Airbase in West Auckland. Photo/ Kenny Rodger

Australian budget airline Jetstar is urging the New Zealand Government to open up Whenuapai air force base as a secondary airport for passenger jets servicing Auckland.

Jetstar chief executive Bruce Buchanan said opening up defence bases near Auckland, Sydney, and Adelaide would promote competition that could reduce charges at existing airports, The Australian reported.

Buchanan pointed to the impact of Avalon airport on Melbourne, and the Gold Coast on Brisbane, as examples of secondary airports having modified the way the major incumbents operated.

"Competition is a wonderful driver of behaviour in the industry," he said as Jetstar launched its New Zealand operations this week. Owned by Qantas, Jetstar yesterday started flying between Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington and Queenstown, replacing Qantas flights.

And rival Pacific Blue, the Christchurch-based subsidiary of Australian-based Virgin Blue, is introducing trans-Tasman flights from Queenstown, Dunedin, and Wellington.

It also plans another six flights a week to Sydney and Brisbane "through another Australian airline", which is expected to be Pacific Wings, using a leased B737 from Nauruan carrier Our Airline. Pacific Wings on Tuesday sought unlimited capacity for its proposed trans-Tasman flights.

Buchanan said opening up Whenuapai, in west Auckland and Richmond base near Sydney, and at Edinburgh in South Australia would change the competitive dynamics in those cities.

His call came in the wake of Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce recently singling out Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne as having some of the highest operating margins in the world -- his airline pays them A$700 ($900) million a year in fees and charges the airline paid them.

Earlier this year, Wellington-based infrastructure investor Infratil made a cryptic comment that it remains interested in "assisting" with Whenuapai Airport in Auckland.

The air force was supposed to consolidate its operations at Ohakea but Defence Minister Wayne Mapp said in January the military will continue using Whenuapai.

Infratil has told its investors that retention of a defence capability at Whenuapai makes sense, but it was a matter of ensuring that it was done in the most effective and efficient way.

"Infratil remains interested in assisting," it said.

Infratil is an investor in both Auckland International Airport and Wellington Airport.

Mapp scrapped the previous government's plans to move the Air Force from Whenuapai to Ohakea in the middle of the North Island, and rejected any suggestion it could become a civilian airport.

"The base at Whenuapai is going to stay as an air force base and there will not be civil scheduled air services out of it," he said. "That is an absolute commitment."

The Government has plans to upgrade the runway at Whenuapai, laid in 1940 at the same time as the Ohakea runway, which was recently ripped up and replaced at a cost of about $20 million.

- NZPA