Palmerston North International Airport
Palmerston North International Airport is owned and operated by Palmerston North Airport Ltd, a company that was formed in December 1989.
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Since 30 November 2006, all shares issued by the company are held by the Palmerston North City Council.
Palmerston North Airport is located to the north-east of Palmerston North on a substantially clay sub-soil. The Aerodrome was first established at the Milson site in 1931 when the Milson Aerodrome Society Incorporated leased a 20 hectare site on Setters Line. The area was only for non-commercial flights by the Aeroclub. The original lease was extended to cover 50 hectares of land and, in 1936, commercial air services were commenced by Union Airways. Later that year, the City Council raised a loan and purchased the Airport, becoming the airport owner and operator in 1937.
In the early 1950's, the new airline, National Airways, sought to improve its aircraft fleet and a sealed runway was considered necessary.
The original terminal building was constructed during this period. In 1958 the administration of the Airport passed to a Joint Venture between the Crown and the City Council. Subsequent extensions including a 300m extension carried out in December 1975, brought the sealed runway to a length of 1,522 m. The runway operated with this length until it was extended by 380m in 1998 to enable direct flights to Australia with Boeing 737 aircraft. The width of the runway has continued at its established original width of 45 metres.
The Joint Venture partners formed a company, Palmerston North Airport Limited, in December 1989. In January 1990 the company purchased Palmerston North Airport for $5,100,000 and the Joint Venture was wound up.
The old terminal building was hopelessly inadequate both in size and its deteriorating condition. The company relocated the cafeteria extension and it is now used as the NZ Post site. The balance of the building was demolished and replaced with a new terminal building in 1992.
A twice weekly service to Fiji commenced on 29 March 2000, but was suspended following a coup in May of that year. The service to Nadi was re-introduced by Freedom Air on 15 May 2004 and withdrawn two years later following further unsettled politics in Fiji.
Major terminal building extensions were officially opened on Sunday 11 June 2000 by the Mayors of 12 of the Districts served by Palmerston North International Airport.
On May 17, 1998, ten people towed a fully fuelled Freedom Air Boeing 737-300 over 100 metres in 47 seconds, to celebrate the opening of the new runway extensions. The record was logged in the Guinness World Records.
There were two regular international services departing from this airport, to Sydney and Brisbane operated by Freedom Air, however services ended in March 2008. Previously, flights also operated to Melbourne, the Gold Coast, and Nadi. The airport also receives a number of domestic flights. Flights from Air Post, Air Freight, Massey University's School of Aviation, commuter airlines such as Air2there, Air National, Vincent Aviation and Rescue Fire Services also use Palmerston North International Airport. The airport is also used for training purposes by RNZAF squadrons based at the nearby Ohakea base.
Location
Ohakea Weather info
- Overcast, rain
- Temperature: 17 °C
- Wind: Variable from West-Northwest to North, 11.1 km/h
- Pressure: 1014 hPa
- Rel. Humidity: 94 %
25.6 km West-Northwest
Reported on:
Tue, 2012-04-24 18:00
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