Air New Zealand Evaluating Paraparaumu Airport

Media Release 14 September 2007

Air New Zealand Evaluating Paraparaumu Airport

Air New Zealand is evaluating utilising Paraparumu Airport for domestic services.

Deputy Chief Executive Officer Norm Thompson says the airline has now completed the first stage of its evaluation of Whenuapai in Auckland and is turning its attention to Paraparaumu.

"The first cut of the work on Whenuapai has been extremely encouraging and given us strong cause to believe that Paraparaumu may be an economically viable option for some of our domestic services for the greater Wellington region," Mr Thompson says.

"We have commenced discussions with the owners of Paraparaumu airport and are quite excited by the possibilities that could be created by their proactive attitude, which is in contrast to that being shown by WIAL.

"For example, we were advised by WIAL yesterday that it cannot guarantee we will receive 'dedicated or preferred use of WIAL's facilities' in the future. This is nothing short of astounding given we have committed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of aircraft to utilising Wellington airport and are by far its largest customer."

Mr Thompson says the first stage of the evaluation of Paraparaumu is expected to be completed within a few weeks.

ENDS

© Scoop Media