The 10 runways at Whanganui Airport will be "absolute gold" when a flight school moves there from Feilding, Phillip Bedford says.
He is the CEO of the New Zealand International Commercial Pilot Academy (NZICPA), formerly Flight Training Manawatu. It moves from Feilding Aerodrome to Whanganui Airport next year. Mr Bedford was speaking at the presentation of Whanganui District Council Holdings' annual report on Thursday night.
Holdings looks after the council's commercial assets. They are worth $8.2 million, and the airport is one of them. Altogether those assets earned the council $1.6 million this year, and $22 million over the last five years.
The airport is not a big earner, Holdings chairman Matthew Doyle said. It's jointly owned by the council and government and has been losing $60,000 to $80,000 a year.
Adding the flight school to the operation should help cashflow and use of the airport.