A new $40 million airport is on the cards for Whangarei after a study found the lifespan of the airport at Onerahi to be less than 15 years.
Whangarei District councillors will vote next Wednesday whether to start investigating potential sites for an airport, as well as to include the project for consideration in the 2015 long term plan.
They will also vote on options to upgrade the airport's apron, taxiway, terminal and car parking area until a long-term solution can be found.
"A major change is not imminent but the current airport's future is limited," said group manager infrastructure services Simon Weston.
"To make the best decision for the long term, we need to start a rigorous programme of investigation and planning now."
The Whangarei Airport Strategic Study has found issues with the current site include problems associated with Civil Aviation rules and runway length. The cost of expanding the runway is estimated at $140 million.
"We knew it had problems and we knew we'd have to deal with it. I guess the timeframe is a little bit shorter than what we first thought it would be, but we're not surprised with the overall outcome," Mr Weston said.
The study comprises stage one of eight and was initiated in February, after discussions with Far North Holdings, Northland Inc, Air New Zealand and the Civil Aviation Authority.
Stage two would look at potential sites in the Whangarei district and provide costs and commercial information, Mr Weston said. He hoped councillors vote to go ahead with stage two at next week's meeting.
Port Nikau was originally touted as a potential in stage one but the study found it would cost about $148 million to establish an airport there.
"It's not completely out of the picture but it doesn't look like a good option at this stage. We would come back to it if nothing better is found."
Mr Weston said attributes a good potential airfield site would have included "flat, good ground conditions, no hills, very few fog days, good access, reasonable development costs".
Ideally, the location would have no limitations "so it would be well future-proof", he said. The estimated cost for a new airport is around $40 million.
"At this point, we are looking at putting $25 million into the LTP and we're asking the question of whether that should be debt-funded or not. The question as to will we get funding from anywhere else, that's being worked through as well."
Councillors will also vote on short-term upgrades to the airport, with the recommended option costing $1.02 million, which may be shared with the Ministry of Transport.