KEY POINTS:
Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey says speculation about a Canadian or Australian buyer for Auckland International Airport makes his push for a commercial airport at Whenuapai seem an "even better idea".
Mr Harvey questioned whether an overseas takeover was in the interests of Auckland. "Assurances by the Auckland and Manukau Council that they will not sell their shares could be reversed by new councils after the local body elections in October.
"There is no guarantee that the region's monopoly airport will not become an overseas monopoly, with future dividends flowing out of the country. What is good for Canadian or Australian investors might not be so good for passengers and airlines.
"Auckland ratepayers might also revolt at the prospect of forking out billions of dollars to develop faster access to Auckland International Airport at Mangere if the real benefit is going out of the country."
Waitakere City Council is a shareholder in Northwest Auckland Airport, with the North Shore City Council, Rodney District and publicly listed infrastructure investor Infratil, which owns Wellington Airport.
Their intention is for commercial air services to Australia, the Pacific and New Zealand destinations to share Whenuapai, at least initially, with the Air Force.
Yesterday, Waitakere councillors approved council submissions which reject the Defence Force Chief's request that the council stop planning moves for the air base.
The council sought submissions on its proposed District Plan Change 22, which aims to give an underlying zoning for the 273.6ha base that protects it for future commercial airport use.
In response, the Defence Force submission says the base is not expected to close until 2015 at the earliest so the council is premature in trying to control potential future development of land it does not own.
Joint use can be considered only closer to the time when the Air Force withdraws.
The submission says significant work would be required to separate defence and civil uses and to upgrade facilities to meet civilian standards.
Limitations on civilian use to protect Defence use would need to be imposed. The council assumed the land would be available for airport use though it would have to go through the Public Works Act requirements, including the offering of some, if not all, of it back to former owners and their successors.
Yesterday, the council approved its responses for a public hearing of the plan change later in the year.
It opposed the Defence submission, saying Defence misunderstood the purpose of the change. The aim was to establish an underlying airport purposes zone to appropriately reflect its current and future aviation activities.
"Any statutory requirements under the Public Works Act do not preclude the use of Whenuapai as a civilian/public airport at a future date. Many airports around New Zealand are held in local authority ownership."
