Wellington International Airport

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Oblique view of Wellington Airport from Mt Victoria

Gollum peering over the terminal building at Wellington Airport during a promotion for the Lord of the Rings movies - June 2004

Wellington International Airport (IATA: WLG, ICAO: NZWN) is on the Rongotai isthmus, 7 km southeast of central Wellington, New Zealand's capital city.

It is a major domestic hub, and has links to the major cities of Australia. In 2005 it served 4.6 million passengers, and currently over 5 million passengers.

The airport occupies 110 hectares,^[2] a small area for the number of passengers it handles.

[edit] History

The current site opened in 1959, after lobbying by the local Chamber of Commerce for a location that was much closer to the city centre.^[3] Wellington's main airport was previously to the north at Paraparaumu Airport on the Kapiti Coast, which was deemed unsuitable for large planes due to adverse terrain. The original length of the runway was 1630 m (5350 ft),^[4] and was extended to its current length of 1936 m in the early 1970s, to handle DC-8s.

Wellington Airport's original domestic terminal was built as a temporary measure inside a corrugated iron hangar, originally used to assemble de Havilland aircraft, and was not replaced for many decades. It was known for being overcrowded, leaky and draughty. You can still see this building from the SoundsAir Terminal from which a covered Walkway used to link the old Terminal to the new one. It has since been removed. An upgrade of the domestic terminal, budgeted at NZ$10 million, was announced in 1981, but by 1983 the plans were shelved after cost projections more than doubled.^[5] The terminal was extensively refurbished in 1986 by Air New Zealand, and Ansett New Zealand built a new terminal as an extension to the international terminal when it commenced competing domestic air services in 1986.

NAC Fokker F27 and Boeing 737 at Wellington Airport, 1969

In 1991, the airport released plans to widen the taxiway to CAA ^[6] specifications and acquire extra space,^[7] which were abandoned after protests from local residents. The plan involved the removal of the nearby Miramar Golf Course and a large number of residential and commercial properties.^[8] The Airport purchased land from the Miramar Golf Course in 1994 for car park space.

As recently as 1992, several alternate sites for Wellington Airport were considered - Te Horo, Paraparaumu, Mana Island, Ohariu Valley, Horokiwi, Wairarapa and Pencarrow,^[9] but a decision was made to upgrade the existing site at Rongotai. A major new terminal was completed in 1999 and integrated with the international terminal, which had been built as an abortive first stage of a whole new terminal in 1979, and a 90 m safety zone at the south end of the runway has been constructed in order to comply with ICAO safety regulations. A similar zone is currently under construction at the runway's north end.^[10]

Since 1998 the airport has been two-thirds privately owned by Infratil, with the remaining third owned by the Wellington City Council.

In late 2003 the airport installed a large statue of Gollum on the terminal in order to promote the world premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, since removed.

In April 2006, Air New Zealand and Qantas announced that they proposed to enter into a codeshare agreement, arguing that it would be necessary in order to reduce empty seats and financial losses on trans-Tasman routes. The airport counter-argued that the codeshare would stifle competition and passenger growth on Wellington's international flights, pointing to what it saw as a market duopoly dominated by Air New Zealand and Qantas.^[11] The codeshare was abandoned by the two airlines after it was rejected in a draft ruling by the ACCC in November 2006.^[12]

[edit] Ongoing issues and development

The shortness of the runway has limited the size of aircraft that can use the airport, and possible overseas destinations are limited to a small number of destinations in Australasia and the Pacific. This has led to a de facto duopoly by Air New Zealand and Qantas on international flights out of Wellington.

A full-length runway extension, to accommodate long-haul aircraft such as the Boeing 747, has been investigated,^{[13][14][15][7][16]} but would require highly expensive land reclamation into Lyall Bay, and massive breakwater protection from Cook Strait. Doubts exist over the viability of such an undertaking, particularly as Air New Zealand has shown no interest in providing international service beyond Australia and the Pacific Islands, and no international airlines have shown serious interest in providing services beyond those points.

The first Boeing 747 to land at Wellington Airport, a Qantas Boeing 747SP, touches down in 1981

JetConnect Boeing 737 on final approach from Cook Strait

Despite the runway limitations, Qantas operated the 747SP on regular flights between Wellington and Australia during the first half of the 1980s. Air New Zealand operated DC-8s from Wellington on trans-Tasman routes, but when the planes were retired in 1981, none of its other planes were capable of operating international flights from Wellington. Air New Zealand's DC-10s required extra runway length, and twin-jet planes were not yet ETOPS certified for trans-Tasman flights. The 747SP addressed this gap in the Wellington market until 1985, when Air New Zealand and Qantas took delivery of their Boeing 767 fleets.^{[17] [18]}

The international terminal - partially built by the now-defunct Ansett New Zealand in 1986 - has been upgraded in various stages since 2005. On February 19, 2008, Wellington Airport announced the proposed design for its new, expanded international terminal. [1] The design, nicknamed "The Rock" and penned by Studio Pacific Architecture and Warren & Mahoney, was a deliberate departure from traditional airport terminal design, and has aroused a great deal of controversy. ^[19]

The upgrade of the international terminal is intended to double the existing capacity from 500 passengers per hour to 1000, and is also being done in anticipation of the entry into service of the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350. These aircraft could potentially fly long-haul from Wellington's short runway, opening up the possibility of direct air links to Asia and the Americas if commercially viable.^[20] Regional business organisations and the airport have put forward their case to various international airlines for long-haul operations to and from Wellington.^[21][5] There have also been plans for expanding retail operations,^[22] as well as building a hotel above the carpark. In particular, a survey commissioned by the Wellington Chamber of Commerce found that respondents regarded the airport's limited international capacity as the biggest obstacle to the Wellington region's economic potential, by a long margin over other factors.^[23]

An Air New Zealand Boeing 737 landing at Wellington Airport, with construction of the south end runway safety area in the foreground in 2006.

Air New Zealand has repeatedly indicated that it has no interest in pursuing long-haul passenger operations from Wellington. It has questioned potential demand for such flights, citing the axing of its Christchurch-Los Angeles route in early 2006.^[24] Wellington business leaders point out that Christchurch's economy is mainly industrial and agricultural, while arguing that Wellington's economy is based mainly on what they see as the higher-value public service, financial, ICT, and creative sectors. It has also been pointed out that while Air New Zealand has been scaling back certain routes, it is adding others, most notably Auckland-Shanghai from 6 November 2006, and extending its Auckland-Hong Kong service to London Heathrow.

Public transport to the Airport is limited to buses as the Airport is quite distant from the Wellington Railway Station, making it difficult to link Wellington Airport to the CBD via a Rail Link. Feasibility studies, such as Transit NZ's Ngauranga to Airport Study, have been carried out to address this gap in the network, with light rail being touted as a popular solution by public transport advocates.

[edit] Incidents

In spite of the short runway and frequent winds, there have been very few safety incidents at the airport. In 1991, a United Airlines Boeing 747 made an unscheduled landing after its original destination, Christchurch Airport, was closed by fog. ^[25][26] Although the plane landed safely, all passengers and freight had to be offloaded before it was able to take off again. The plane was diverted from Auckland to Christchurch, due to fog at Auckland. Whilst passing Wellington, Christchurch was also blanketed by fog. Low on fuel, the flight was diverted to Wellington.

On Wednesday 21st of November 2007, a Cessna 172 owned by Wings over Whales departing to Kaikoura on a whale watching trip flipped onto its roof as it was taxiing onto the runway in strong northerly winds. Two people were on board and escaped with only minor injuries. The airport was closed for approximately 2 hours.

[edit] Airlines and destinations

BAe Jetstream 41 of now-defunct Origin Pacific Airways at Wellington Airport in June 2004.

[edit] External links

• Wellington International Airport official site
• Airliner photos at Wellington International Airport (Airliners.net site)
• NZWN Details on AviationPage New Zealand
• Information about Wellington International Airport
• New Zealand AIP Operational Data Pages

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