Mayors meet with government ministers over Kāpiti Airport's uncertain fate

Tuesday, 20 April 2021

George Jenkins, from Kāpiti hapū Puketapu, on what the land at Kāpiti Coast Airport means to him and other descendants of the original owners, who are fighting to get it back. (First published September 2020)

Government ministers have been asked to intervene to secure the uncertain future of Kāpiti Airport, with local mayors raising concerns that a closure could hamper the response to emergencies.

Worried about speculation that the airport's owners planned to close it, Porirua Mayor Anita Baker, Kāpiti Mayor K Gurunathan and representatives from the Save Kāpiti Airport group and Kāpiti Aero Club met with Transport Minister Michael Wood on Tuesday morning to request his support for keeping the airport open.

The meeting came after several investigations were launched into how a medical flight on December 13 was delayed after Kāpiti Airport was temporarily closed because of security threat. Nelson woman Annie Riley was onboard and the delay contributed to her being unable to hold her dying newborn daughter Charlie, who was being treated at Wellington Regional Hospital.

Multiple Government Ministers, including Transport Minister Michael Wood, have been asked to back a push to keep Kāpiti Airport open.

The evening before the meeting, Save Kāpiti Airport group also wrote toActing Emergency Management Minister Kris Faafoi asking him to make the airport a “lifeline utility”, giving special legal protection as an essential piece of infrastructure. On Tuesday afternoon, Faafoi had ruled out doing so.

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Speculation has been rife for months that Kāpiti Airport could soon close.

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Baker, who also chairs the Wellington Region Civil Defence Emergency Management joint committee, told the meeting health services had landed planes at Kāpiti Airport more than 30 times in the past six months.

She argued that well as being vital for medical flights, Kāpiti Airport could be essential if a major earthquake was to strike, cutting off roads to Porirua, Wellington or the Hutt Valley for up to four months.

After the meeting Baker said she was “quite happy” with how it went: “We got a good hearing.”

Marcel van den Assum, who represented the Save Kāpiti Airport group at the meeting, said the focus was on “presenting a compelling vision” for the airport as a strategic asset.

The airport is at the centre of a Waitangi Tribunal claim and Kāpiti Aeroclub president Tony Quayle, who also attended the meeting, said proponents of the airport remaining open were committed to “finding a solution that has long term benefit for the original [mana whenua] owners”.

However, George Jenkins, a spokesman for the Puketapu hapū which has lodged the treaty claim, was not aware the meeting had been held until he was called by Stuff for comment,

He said some experts disagreed with the argument that Kāpiti Airport was essential to Wellington’s emergency responses, but he could not comment further.

“The issue that faces us all as a people, especially the Government, is to be on the right side of history.”

Wood said the meeting was 'constructive” and he planned to meet with the airport owners in the future to “further understand the issue”.

Faafoi said while Kāpiti Airport would be “useful” in an emergency it was not considered “essential' to region’s emergency response and helicopters could land at Ōhakea or Palmerston North instead if there was an earthquake.

Templeton Group, which owns Kāpiti Airport, did not provide comment on the meeting before publication.

Late last year, a company spokeswoman Dani Simpson said no decisions had been made about the airport's future.

Gurunathan decline to comment on the meeting.