Air ruling cheers growers

By Stacey Bodger

TAURANGA - Bay of Plenty fruitgrowers are delighted that Tauranga's airport business board has halted plans by transtasman charter airline K2000 to run summer flights from the city.

The airline was offering 16 flights between Tauranga and Brisbane from December 2 to March 30, which would have been the airport's first international service.

Its 16-week charter service, including Auckland, Dunedin, Hamilton, Rarotonga and Sydney, has already been approved by those New Zealand airports.

Tauranga recently completed a $2 million runway extension, making it capable of taking the 170-seater Boeing 737-400 aircraft that K2000 plans to lease from Turkey's Pegasus Airline for the charters.

But the airport business board has rejected K2000's plans until proper border control facilities are established.

The Fruitgrowers' Federation last month threatened to take legal action if the budget airline was allowed to bring international flights to the heart of New Zealand's kiwifruit industry without full biosecurity protection.

The Civil Aviation Authority, Agriculture and Forestry Border Control, the New Zealand Customs Service, Immigration and the Aviation Security Service all supported the federation's stance at a meeting with the airport board.

The federation's vice-president, Andrew Fenton, said fruitgrowers were relieved to hear that the board had moved to protect the industry and the Bay of Plenty economy.

The Mayor of Tauranga and airport business board chairman, Noel Pope, said K2000 had "come knocking" about a year too early for the city, which had a priority of improving domestic services.

The board had taken advice from Customs and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and would not approve flights without dispensation for biosecurity controls.

The Government announced last month that no more dispensations, such as those awarded to Hamilton and Dunedin, would be granted for provincial airports.

Mr Pope said the board was still in discussions with K2000: "We are not shutting the door - it's just bad timing."

K2000 consultant Ewan Wilson, the founder of the collapsed Kiwi International Airlines, said the airport board's decision was reckless and short-sighted.

"They spend the money so the airport can handle our aircraft but when the first customers knock on the door, they back off."

He could not say how many people had booked flights in or out of Tauranga, but they had all been notified and offered discounted flights from Auckland or Hamilton.