Garth George: International flight of fancy at an end

Garth George

When I came to Rotorua seven years ago and heard that the district council was developing the airport for "international" flights, I was, to say the least, astounded.

And when I read back in 2010 that the council's prediction was that Rotorua Airport would host up to six international flights in and out each week within three years, I laughed out loud.

That chuckle had nothing to do with the worldwide recession that was still beyond the horizon. My mirth was because I just couldn't see how a district with only about 65,000 people could possibly support even one overseas flight in a week.

On top of that, it seemed absurd to me that anyone would think that any but a small number of tourists would choose Rotorua as an entry point, or exit point for that matter, to or from overseas destinations.

Just look at the geography. Rotorua is in the middle of nowhere. No tourist with half a brain would choose to start his visit in the middle of the North Island, then have to backtrack to Auckland before going south to Taupo, Wellington and the South Island.

Rotorua always has been, is, and always will be a provincial backwater city when it comes to international air traffic movements. Not even Tauranga, New Zealand's fourth largest city with tens of thousands more people than Rotorua, has any pretensions to an international airport.

As it transpired, Air New Zealand had to be bribed to begin even two trans-Tasman flights to and from Sydney each week. Many a time the flights have been cancelled for lack of custom, and I suspect even those that flew barely paid their way.

Now, four years later, it is no surprise that the Great Rotorua International Airport Debacle has come to an end and that the overseas flights will be terminated next April.

What is outrageous is that the district council has wasted more than $9 million in bribes (called "joint venture marketing") to the highly profitable Air New Zealand, and racked up multi-millions of public debt to pay for unnecessary airport extensions and ancillary services.

There is no point in demanding that heads roll over this fiasco. They already have. Former chief executive Peter Guerin lost his job last year when his contract was not renewed, and soon after Kevin Winters was comprehensively thrown out of the mayoralty.

And how refreshing it is that Mayor Steve Chadwick and the council's new senior bureaucrats have right from the start adopted a policy of transparency so that ratepayers are kept informed of what's going on, both good and bad. It's been a long time ...

Rotorua Airport's job is, and always will be, to facilitate traffic between here and points south and north. So it is encouraging that the airport chief executive, Alastair Rhodes, concedes that getting rid of the Sydney flights is the right decision and will allow the airport to focus on delivering better services and a greater return to Rotorua and the wider Bay of Plenty.

This it already does very well with Air New Zealand providing several direct flights to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch every day, albeit at exorbitant fares.

Mayor Chadwick says the council's decision to stop paying bribes to Air New Zealand was not an easy decision to make, but it was the most financially prudent course of action.

She said: "While it's controversial, it was a decision we felt at the council we had to make unanimously. It meets our criteria of being effective and efficient and transparent ... and making decisions that make us go forward with economic growth in our community."

Which, in everyday language, means: "Thank God we've got rid of this enormous white elephant and can get on with servicing the district and managing debt."

garth.george@hotmail.com