Airport runway lights bring action to Far North

Lights will keep the Kaitaia Airport runway open longer, and open the district to more opportunity, writes MATHEW DEARNALEY.

Kaitaia is being turned into a magnet for fly-by-nighters.

The Far North is forking out for a set of airport landing lights a quarter of a century after being left in the lurch by Government aviation planners who began a similar project, then blacked it out.

Community leaders hope that the lights, which will cost about $240,000 to install, will entice more air traffic to help unlock a rich potential for tourism and other business ventures.

Engineering workshop owner and airport overseer Russell Wagener has persuaded the modestly funded Far North District Council to underwrite the new project after years of campaigning to open Kaitaia to night flights.

A set of lights which incoming pilots will be able to switch on by remote control has been ordered from Australia, a contractor has been selected, and everything should be in place by September.

Mr Wagener sees air services as essential to the Far North's economic development.

He says the lack of lights prevents aircraft leaving Kaitaia early enough on winter days to deliver passengers to connecting flights from Auckland.

An Eagle Air 15-seater Bandeirante arrives each day at Kaitaia from Whangarei and Auckland about midday for a quick turnaround. Mr Wagener says it is of little use to businesspeople with pressing appointments or to tourists with limited time.

Mountain Air, of Taumarunui, has extended a trial of early morning and late afternoon return flights in a six-seater Piper Aztec, and a larger Britten-Norman Islander when demand warrants, but in winter has to delay its arrival in Kaitaia from Auckland until after dawn.

This means it cannot leave Kaitaia earlier enough from May until September in time to deliver passengers to Auckland connecting flights.

Mr Wagener hopes the smaller operator, which also runs services to Great Barrier Island and the central North Island skifields, can survive the lean winter months.

"At the moment, with Air New Zealand, it's a three-day trek to Wellington and back," he says.

"It is too far to drive so consequently nothing gets done - nobody is going anywhere and nobody is coming to this place bringing new ideas."

He hopes the runway lights will prove a catalyst for change for the Far North.

"There is an opportunity for some smart Aucklander who wants to utilise the workforce up here," he says.

"There is terrific potential here, and being able to get in at any time opens up all sorts of opportunities."

Mr Wagener says that while trawling through archives to prepare his case, he unearthed a complete set of plans for lights which the Government intended installing in 1974 before an unexplained change of mind.

"They went to the trouble of digging all the trenches through the hard pan, and then filling them in again."

Kaitaia's airport and its 1402m sealed runway, the largest civilian landing place north of Auckland, are now leased from the Government by district council subsidiary Far North Holdings

Mr Wagener says this apparently makes it ineligible for subsidy assistance from the Government's regional development coffers.

Mountain Air owners Keith and Robyn McKenzie say they are not yet making money from the Kaitaia link but hope to stay there for the long haul, although not in direct competition with Air New Zealand.

"You just have to look at Qantas New Zealand to see what happens when you go head to head with Air New Zealand. There is a tendency for you to go broke," says Mr McKenzie.

But this has not stopped them from offering $99 one-way discounts for early morning visitors to Kaitaia, against their full fare of $226, and up to $291 each way on Air New Zealand.

They have also just launched a "Big Day Out" package for overseas visitors, in which people are flown to Kaitaia then linked with four-wheel-drive or coach tours to Cape Reinga.