Press on with airport name change:Mana Ahuriri

JUST DO IT: Press on with airport name change: Maori is irked by the Hastings' council's stance on a new name for Hawke's Bay Airport. PHOTO/FILE

The Treaty claimant group which wants the region's airport to be called Ahuriri Airport Hawkes' Bay says the change should go ahead despite the Hastings District Council this week voting in favour of a different name.

The Mana Ahuriri Incorporated group approached Hawke's Bay Airport Ltd last year, requesting the name change.

The airport company was supportive but asked its two local shareholders, the Napier City Council and Hastings District Council, to formally back the proposal.

Napier did so last month, but at a meeting on Thursday, Hastings councillors voted 8-6 to support a slightly different name: Hawke's Bay Airport Ahuriri.

The Hastings decision has angered Mana Ahuriri and left the airport company in a quandary. Mana Ahuriri deputy chairman Piri Prentice yesterday called the Hastings council's decision "lame" and said it was a backdown on an undertaking given when the group discussed the matter informally with the council last year.

The airport is 50 per cent owned by the Crown, with the Napier council having a 26 per cent stake and Hastings 24 per cent.

State Owned Enterprises Minister Todd McClay had told the airport company the Crown has "no objection" to the Ahuriri Airport Hawkes' Bay name-change proposal.

Mr Prentice said given the Crown's neutral position, and Napier's larger shareholding, the airport company should "just get on with it" and make the change that it and the Napier council supported.

"Ahuriri" should be at the front of the name because "the airport is in Ahuriri, not Hastings," he said.

Airport company chairman Tony Porter said discussions among board members on how to progress the issue would begin at its board meeting on Tuesday.

However he expected a decision would take some time to be reached and would not be made before further discussions, including with Mana Ahuriri.

A widely held objection to the name change - and one that was voiced by several Hastings councillors at Thursday's meeting - was that calling the airport Ahuriri Airport Hawkes' Bay would be confusing to travellers not familiar with the area.

But Mana Ahuriri and other supporters of the name-change proposal say it would be a sign of respect to local Maori and would not be costly because it would be timed to coincide with a planned major redevelopment of the airport terminal.