Whanganui Airport: Council begins parallel taxiway project but Government tight-lipped on funding share

The partial parallel taxiway will be finished in September.

Work is under way on a partial parallel taxiway at Whanganui Airport, but funding for the second half of the project is still to be secured.

Phase one of the project, costing $3.6 million, will be finished in September.

Whanganui District Council chief strategy officer Sarah O’Hagan told the council’s projects and grants committee there were ongoing discussions with the Ministry of Transport about “bringing their contribution to the table at some point”.

The airport runs in a joint partnership with the ministry, which refused to fund phase two of the project because it did not view the taxiway as essential.

O’Hagan said a funding application for phase two, also costing $3.6m, was submitted to the Government’s regional infrastructure fund (RIF) at the end of last year.

“We haven’t had a response from that,” she said.

“Quite frankly, [the] council doesn’t care which central agency the other half of the money comes from, just that we get it.”

This week, Kanoa, which administered the RIF fund, had asked for more information about the project, O’Hagan said.

“We are providing that information. We remain hopeful that we will receive the other half of the capital so we can do the full job.”

O’Hagan said contractors Fulton Hogan began construction of phase one in March and work was not interfering with the airport’s day-to-day operations.

The partial taxiway will run from the New Zealand International Commercial Pilot Academy‘s hangar to the threshold of the main runway.

In December, O’Hagan said that would mitigate “significant safety issues”, predominantly backtracking.

Backtracking involves an aircraft taxiing on a runway opposite its takeoff or landing direction.

The council said in a statement that a 2019 aeronautical study identified the need for the parallel taxiway and highlighted the increasing number of aircraft movements – currently more than 65,000 per year – as a major operational risk.

Last year, the project drew criticism from airport users such as Air Chathams and Aerowork, who said it was unnecessary and would not fix safety issues.

As well as reducing back-tracking, the taxiway would minimise aircraft movements on the aircraft parking apron, reducing potential conflict between aircraft, passengers and airport staff, the council said.

“[It will] provide a 24/7, all-weather taxiway, improving resilience and reducing wear-and-tear on the remaining grass taxiways.”

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present, his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.