Hamilton Airport ditches runway extension idea, councillor calls move 'naive'

Friday, 7 April 2023

Hamilton’s airport will not to go ahead with a runway extension slated since 2011.

A runway extension slated for Hamilton’s airport will not go ahead, with the boss saying there’s “no compelling argument”.

But a Hamilton city councillor and airline industry figure sees that as “strategically and commercially naive”.

Waikato Regional Airport Ltd (WRAL) chief executive Mark Morgan said expert reports showed “no compelling argument” to extend the fourth-longest runway in the country from 2195m to 3000m, and a consent held since 2011 designating 16 hectares of land for an extension would be left to lapse.

Hamilton-Kirikiriroa is still international-ready, Morgan said – if that’s what airlines want. Infrastructure is in place to enable flights to Australia, the South Pacific and even Singapore with the existing runway – which is longer than Wellington’s.

* Hamilton Airport put forward for Pacific Island bubble flights

The detailed technical review showed an extended runway was “not necessary to our future”, Waikato Regional Airport Ltd (WRAL) chief executive Mark Morgan said.

* Coronavirus: Corporates and families to prop up Hamilton air travel post-Covid-19

The detailed technical review showed an extension was “not necessary”, he said. The airport would “love to see an international airline come back”.

Councillor Ewan Wilson said that the decision was short-sighted and would render the airport “an aviation backwater in perpetuity”.

Ewan Wilson, who chairs the city council’s economic development committee, said the decision is “strategically and commercially naive” and would make the airport “an aviation backwater in perpetuity”.

“This isn’t just for the next ten or fifteen years,” he said.

Wilson also maintained that it is a misnomer to call the airport “international-ready”.

“Although I agree the current runway enables flights to Sydney and Brisbane… When you start looking at Melbourne and you start looking at Cairns, then you do run the risk of having to make some sort of compromise between fuel and payload, and you always take fuel and surrender payload. My immediate thought is whether they’ve future proofed it for narrow-body, single-aisle aircraft?”

The decision, he said, would only benefit Auckland Airport and Air New Zealand, who would have the advantage of consolidating their international operations in Auckland.

“I hope to heck that whoever they relied on for their strategic advice isn’t also working for Auckland Airport.”

HCC, which holds a 50% stake in the airport along with four other local councils, would now have a stronger case in expecting a higher dividend return following the $100 million project’s termination, Wilson said.

“The long and the short of it – it certainly builds my hope of a significant dividend payment going forward. They’ve had seven years of positive profitability, and they’ve paid dividend a few times and the most we’ve ever got is $250,000.”

The runway decision is part of a wider 30-year masterplan for the airport discussed with the company’s five council shareholders on Friday.