It is noted that it is proposed to spend millions of dollars on the Kerikeri airport. To what end? The planes that land there now are at the limit of their safe landing limit now and there is no room for extending the runway. In addition, the airport has been known to be closed down because of fog or other weather conditions.
Those millions would be far better invested with a few more in a partnership deal with the claimants and Ngapuhi for a sealed surface at Kaikohe, a strip long enough to take some of the biggest aircraft flying today, and has done so.
Kaikohe has a mile long landing field on solid basalt foundation and if the investment made at Kerikeri had gone into the Kaikohe site, it would have more than covered the commuting costs for decades and provided a much better service. Think of what difference it would have made to the Northern economy if this had been like Invercargill and been a point of entry and exit for international flights.
The Government recently saw fit to invest $30 million into Southland, it should be matched with a similar amount at this end of the country.
When will petty parochial short-sighted thinking be put behind us for the better use of the region's natural advantages and for the best economical service for all the region's ratepayers. When tourist interests in Paihia and the Whangarei Chamber of Commerce both advocate for the development of the Kaikohe airfield, why are the politicians, both local and national not listening?
