Wellington Airport's majority owner Infratil Ltd says new aircraft, rather than a longer runway, will allow direct services between the city and Asia.
Infratil said in a shareholder update that the Wellington City Council had reiterated its desire to have the city directly connected to Asia with air services.
The reiteration was accompanied by calls for the airport to extend its runway to allow larger jets to take-off fully loaded.
"The primary impediment to such services is, however, not the runway length but the size of the Wellington market," Infratil said.
"The boon for the Wellington market is expected to be the Boeing 787, which is still on track to commence services later in 2011. This aircraft will be able to operate off Wellington's runway and with a capacity of about 200 passengers it suits the scale of Wellington-Asia daily traffic," it said.
