Editorial: Time to end this costly burden

Photo / Ross Setford

Our flights to Sydney have been dropped. The Rotorua District Council has finally, after six years flogging a dead horse, come to its senses.

The council's refusal to pay Air New Zealand more than $1 million a year to keep the service in Rotorua is commendable.

It's about the last of the council's "legacy issues" that finally came to light after the departure of former mayor Kevin Winters and council chief executive Peter Guerin.

After weeks of back-slapping and champagne swilling in December 2009 when our first flight from Sydney arrived, the writing was soon on the wall.

Few were using the service and within months it was obvious the council had to pay up or Air New Zealand would take off.

So, the council stumped up the funds. It is staggering to think that more than $9 million of ratepayer-funded cash went straight into the pockets of Air New Zealand.

And why Sydney? If the council was paying Air New Zealand for the privilege of international flights, why could it not dictate where it wanted flights to?

Many more people would have used a Rotorua-Brisbane or Rotorua-Gold Coast service.

The airline's so-called marketing campaign for Rotorua's direct flights was almost non-existent, and they were not cheap. More often than not it was cheaper to fly of out Auckland. We were paying for convenience, so we were told.

But, what many people need to understand is if the council did not spend tens of millions of dollars on upgrading the airport and runway we would not have an operating airport at all.

Even domestic jets would not have been able to use it, and that would have been disastrous for Rotorua.