Taupo Airport fails to meet safety standards, says CAA

The RNZAF Red Checkers at a Taupo Airport airshow. File picture / Hawke's Bay Today

Taupo Airport fails to meet acceptable safety levels, a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) report says.

The report says the airport should have a flight information service to assist pilots to avoid collisions.

Taupo aeronautical study team leader Len Wicks would not comment on how dangerous conditions at Taupo Airport were but said his team would not have made the recommendations if they were not "safety critical".

An aerodrome flight information service monitors air traffic and conditions, interprets them and reports the information to pilots, enabling them to make decisions on flight paths and landings.

Taupo Airport has a Unicom system, which relays information to other pilots rather than making observations and interpreting what is seen.

"A Unicom could be in a room with no windows, it doesn't make observations itself," Mr Wicks said.

Taupo Airport had a flight information service until 1997 when it was deemed unnecessary as the number of flights then was 25,000 a year.

Last year 43,500 flights took off or landed at Taupo airport.

Taupo Airport manager Roy Carmichael said though the service would cost a considerable amount of money, the airport would set it up if told to do so by the CAA.

"It's up to the director of civil aviation to tell us to do so," he said.

CAA spokesman Bill Sommer said the report had not yet been accepted by the authority's director, John Jones.

It was expected that the director would make a decision on the report in the next few months.

Other recommendations in the report included confining parachute and parasail operations over Lake Taupo to specific areas clear of the airport, updating of aviation procedures and restricting helicopter operations to ensure they were clear of the runway.

- NZPA