Rotorua, Hamilton vying for aircraft charter

Rotorua is being considered as a home base for an Australian aircraft charter operator - but only if the city's airport runway is extended.
Ozjet is looking for a New Zealand home and met Rotorua airport officials this week.
However, Hamilton may have the upper hand as Rotorua's airport has not yet got a runway long enough to cater for full jets from Australia.
A decision on whether Rotorua airport should get resource consent to extend its runway was delayed for more than a year and is now expected by the end of February.
A longer runway would allow Rotorua to cater for regular transtasman flights.
Ozjet group general manager Willie O'Neill was in Rotorua and Hamilton on Monday. A New Zealand base would have 20 to 30 staff, including pilots, hosting staff and engineers, operating two 737 jets, each capable of carrying 106 people.
Although Mr O'Neill has been reported as saying he was "hugely impressed by Rotorua", Rotorua Regional Airport Ltd chairman Neil Oppatt said the company needed to know it could fly its jets into the city.
"It's sad that here we have got owners of aircraft - and they are not the only ones - wanting to fly into Rotorua, but we don't have the infrastructure to do it."
However, if all went well with the resource consent decision, the first Ozjet flight might land in Rotorua in May for Trenz, the country's biggest tourism trade show.
"Regardless of where they base themselves, it will make no difference to the sort of business we do with them. We as a company are really looking forward to working with them in the future."
Had Ozjet already been operating in New Zealand, it could have catered for six plane loads of A1GP fans heading for Taupo, Mr Oppatt said.
"They would have stayed in Rotorua and gone to the racing each day. That's the sort of business opportunities we are talking about."
Ozjet leases aircraft and crew on behalf of third parties who pay the costs upfront before the plane leaves the ground.
Mr Oppatt said there would be little difference in fares than having to travel to Auckland and then Australia.
"When you are talking about conferences coming to Rotorua for four or five days, the last thing they want to do is waste time going to Auckland and then come to Rotorua."
He could also see Ozjet being used by the likes of sports clubs and fans in Rotorua and surrounding areas for charter trips to the likes of Bledisloe Cup rugby matches.
More than 60,000 people from the Bay of Plenty, Hawke's Bay and Gisborne have been to Australia in the past year - which Mr Oppatt said was a huge market for any transtasman airline or charter company to be attracted to.