by Geoffrey Churchman and Roger Childs

It has been contentious for over 30 years. This year the two main political parties have chosen to comment on it, a change from their previous stance which was to not go there (although Tim Costley has supported the airport in a private capacity.)

The obvious questions:

1. Who owns it
2. Who uses it
3. What are its benefits, present and potential
4. What are the implications of it closing

Back in 1939 the Labour government compulsorily acquired approximately 130 hectares of land to establish a military aerodrome because of the advent of WWII. The land was taken from local owners, including Māori landowners of the Puketapu hapu of Te Ati Awa ki Kāpiti. Further compulsory acquisitions continued to 1949.

As far as we can establish, some compensation was paid to these owners at the time of the initial takings under the mechanisms of the Public Works Act, though the adequacy, fairness, and long-term handling of these takings have been heavily contested. Crucially, the Crown admitted failures concerning subsequent events — such as not protecting the rights of original owners or hapū (Puketapu ki Paraparaumu / Te Ātiawa) to buy back surplus land when the airport was privatized in 1995 and when portions of land (like Avion Terrace and MetService-occupied land) were later sold or managed.

After WWII the government decided that the existing Wellington airport wasn’t big enough for future growth needs and while it was being redevoloped into what it is now (before the later south end extension), Paraparaumu became the Wellington area’s main airport. The new Wellington airport was evenutally completed and opened in 1959.

In 1995 the government decided it no longer needed to own the Paraparaumu airport and the Crown privatised it by selling it to a private company. The KCDC could have offered to buy it but didn’t. Harold Thomas was a councillor at the time who wanted to buy it. The price then was $5 million. But then mayor Brett Ambler was very anti and it was bought by his friend Murray Cole for a mere $1.65 million!

Cole and friends did very well from it: Over 2006–2007 property developer Noel Robinson and partners bpught the airport for just under $40 million

What is the airport land worth now? It’s believed PropCo paid $100 million in 2019 and it has a value today in the order of $150 million.

NZ PropCo, which was formed at the time of the purchase of the airport land in 2019 from Todd Property Group, has 3 shareholders, the Templeton group being the largest. It owns the land and the airport. The landing/commercial area to the east side was a separate piece of land, which is owned by Pandium.

Commercially, the airport has been used in recent times by Air New Zealand, Sounds Air and by Air Chathams. Operated via its regional subsidiary Air Nelson using Bombardier Q300 aircraft, Air NZ began flights between Paraparaumu and Auckland in 2011. Christchurch services later added in November 2013. Air New Zealand suspended its Kapiti Coast operations on 3 April 2018.

After enticement by Mayor Guru and the offer of big subsidies by KCDC — which have been commented on previously — Air Chathams took over the Paraparaumu to Auckland route on 3 August 2018. The subsidies were added to with an interest-free loan from KCDC, decided in a secret session, in 2020. This was repaid earlier this year — see the post at the time.

After losing money ‘hand over fist’ Air Chathams ceased operating at the end of August this year — thus after 7 years.

Sounds Air officially launched its first scheduled flights from Paraparaumu to Blenheim on 30 January 2015, and added a Nelson service in June 2015. As Paraparaumu is scheduled to permanently close on 30 November, Sounds Air will then shift these services to operate out of Wellington Airport.

As far as we know, Sounds Air has not received KCDC subsidies although it has received central government subsidies and we think Sounds Air got over $4 million in the interest free loan scheme from the government.

Apart from the commercial operators, the local Aero Club(s) have over 300 members, 7 aircraft and one helicopter. They do flight training and must have trained thousands over the years. Many of the private pilots have gone on to train go on to train towards commercial aviation. We’re not sure how many flights per annum they do or how many are locals.

Although the airport’s runway length of 1187 metres is too short for an Airbus A320 or a Boeing 737, it’s enough for the largest tactical transport aircraft of the RNZAF which is a Lockheed C-130J-30 Super Hercules — it only needs needs 914 metres. Thus if there was a need for such an aircraft to land supplies after a major airquake then it could — although that assumes that the runway was still usuable and hadn’t been broken by the tremors.

Helpicopters, as people know, require only small amounts of land to land and take off from.

We don’t believe commercial flights have had any significant tourist impact; the users of the Air NZ and Air Chathams flights will have been mostly business people and council staff, or their Auckland based consultants. The same is true of Sounds Air.

But a big crowd wanted to retain the airport

At the end of October, hundreds turned out to a meeting called by local MP Tim Costley to talk about the future of the airport. The original plan was to meet outside in the north-west corner of The Landing. However, as the weather was very blustery hundreds – perhaps 500-600 — crammed into the vacant premises that Kitchen Things had previously occupied. People stood patiently for about an hour.

Tim Costley spoke first and stressed that he had been fighting to see the airport retained for more than six years. He and others mentioned the familiar arguments of–

• the civil defence issue
• Kapiti having on-going air links with other centres
• the back-up for Wellington in the event of a disaster
• the desirability of having Kapiti and outside investment in a business-hub based around the airport
• the use of airport by helicopter services
• the needs and value of the Kapiti Aero Club.

A KCDC councilor and an Aero Club representative also spoke of the need to retain such a highly valuable piece of infrastructure. Tim Costley also mentioned that from a parochial point of view the present owners were not locals and neither were the possible new owners.

The Labour candidate Sophie Handford, who was not present, also supports the retention of the Kapiti Coast Airport. She may yet get into parliament on special votes..

It’s important to remember that while the airport is privately owned, it is publicly zoned said Tim Costley. Even if the present owners accept an offer which is on the table that will not settle the issue. The zoning situation is in the hands of KCDC and it will be interesting to see how they respond to this successful meeting where hundreds of people in the community have made their hostile views very clear.

To get a zone change a private plan change would have to be applied for which would be fully notified and would require hearing commissioners and full public consultation before exhaustive hearings then a recommendation to council for its consideration. It would be very unlikely for that to happen in this current term of the council, and quite possibly not in the next term either. Thus there is no immediate likelihood of physical changes to the airport after closure. Property businessmen won’t be creating new subdivsions anytime soon.

The pages below relate to the Met Service and the 3-hectare site it occupies of Tahi Road.