There's growing concerns in the world of air travel, as New Zealand currently lacks a 24/7 backup airport.
Ohakea Airbase originally filled that gap, but it hasn't returned to full operation since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Board of Airline Representatives NZ executive director Cath O'Brien explained why changes need to be made.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right, we have a problem in New Zealand. We don't
have a twenty four to seven backup airport anywhere in
the country. Currently, long haul airliners flying into Auckland, for example,
they've got to carry an extra six tons of fuel.
This is in case they need to divert at the
last minute somewhere else. Now Ohakia usually stands in as
the backup. But since the pandemic, the Air Force Bass
(00:21):
controllty I hasn't been staffed overnight. Kath O'Brien is the
Barnes executive director and joins me this evening. Get a
cath ning Ryan is six just to start with six tons?
Is that heaps? So how much do the big jets
usually carry on with them?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah? Well, I think the important thing to think about
is that, yes, it's six ton, but if you're carrying
six ton of jet fuel, that means you cannot carry
the equivalent weight of passengers or cargo. So not only
are you having to carry the extra wright of the
of the jet fuel, but you're actually losing out on
carrying more passengers to New Zealand. And some aircraft are
(00:57):
having to fly and limited in the seats they can sell,
so they actually can't sell the whole plane because they
have to carry that extra fuel?
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Does it how much does it extra? Does it cost them?
And do you run into this problem? And is presumably
not in Australia, they have somewhere else to go.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Oh, it costs the jet fuel. I think publicly available
information it's probably somewhere maybe six kindred jets who we
might get some change out of ten thousand New Zealand dollars,
but of course airlines will henche it out over time.
But it's a daily cost. If you're flying to New
Zealand daily, and bearing in mind you're probably paying something
like forty five thousand dollars to actually just land your
(01:35):
plane in New Zealand between airport charges and customs and buyosecurity,
and then you've got another ten for your extra jet fuel.
And that's before you pay your staff, or buy your
ordinary fuel, or buy your food, or pay for your
waste or anything else. And the thing is, it really
starts to make it a hard business to do when
all those costs.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
That up one hundred percent. So what's the solution.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Look For a long time now, we've been talking about
making Hackey are available so you know, for those who
don't know, a Hackey is not far from Palmerston North.
It's a wonderful military base that serves New Zealand's defense needs.
It's also able to act as an ultimate which means
that airlines that are flying to New Zealand can plan
to fly to a Hakier instead of Auckland or christ Church,
(02:20):
which is essentially a shorter distance to fly to a Hakia,
saving the jet fuel. And if they're available around the clock,
they can receive you know, five or six large planes
in an emergency if we really did lose capability at
Aukland or christ Church. So it's a very you know,
operationally important airport. But since the pandemic it hasn't been
(02:41):
available at nighttime. Why not look primarily because we had
a bit of a challenge with firefighters, which the Defense
Force has resolved, and now we continue to have a
challenge with air traffic controllers. And you know, it is
a big effort to train specialized staff like that and
have them based you know, not far from Bulls. But
(03:05):
it's a really critical think it actually wouldn't really cost
that much money to kind of fix and it's probably
the biggest bang for buck that we could do for
New Zealand aviation and tourism because with that staffing, airlines
could come to New Zealand anytime. They could plan to
come at any hour of the night. But at the moment,
(03:26):
long haul aviation is limited to plan for New Zealand
between you know, essentially first thing in the morning and
later into the evening, and then that's it.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Would it genuinely well, I mean obviously there are those benefits.
Would it bring down the cost of a ticket?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Well, certainly, it saves obviously that cost of the additional fuel,
and then it allows you to sell or tickets in
more cargo, more customer tickets and more cargo, so it
spreads the cost over the whole aircraft. So it is beneficial.
But I think what it also does is we'll remote
competition because more airlines will be able to plan journeys
(04:03):
here when we've got more operational capability like that.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
We haven't talked about fanoa Paie. Is that not suitable?
Too small?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Look, it's essentially not for lots of reasons, not least
because of the housing that's really close around it, and
also because O'haka is beautifully placed right sort of almost
smack in the middle between Auckland and christ Church, which
are New Zealand's sort of significant jet ports excluding Queenstown.
(04:32):
Then you know, it's a lovely middle point. So it's
so physically it's in the right place. In fact, you know,
ever since New Zealand civil aviation system was designed way
back in you know, nineteen forty, Ohakia was noted to
be the most sensible ultimate so it's always been it's
just that we haven't been able to resell it in
recent years.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
How come what's the problem with just going to christ Church?
Like if you can't get to talk and go to
christ Church vice versa.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Well, certainly lots of airlines do that now, So if
you can't have access to a hockey are, you'll go
to christ Church. The trick about christ Church is that
sometimes it's fobby, and that happens quite regularly through the year,
and sometimes christ Church will do really important runway maintenance
(05:18):
so they will close their runway in a planned way,
and so at those times airlines can't plan for christ Church.
And over the last couple of years we have had
multiple and multiple and multiple examples of very large, well
known international airlines sitting up in their home countries with
a full plane waiting to take off to New Zealand
and being unable to depart because New Zealand is effectively
(05:40):
not open.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
God, that's embarrassing.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah it is, Yeah it is. And it's a problem
that we could really easily fix for not particularly much money,
and I just don't understand why we can't.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Catho Brian appreciate your time, Border Airline Representatives, New Zealand
Executive Director. For more from Heather Dup and Drive, listen
live to News Talks at B from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
Right, we have a problem in New Zealand. We don't
have a twenty four to seven backup airport anywhere in
the country. Currently, long haul airliners flying into Auckland, for example,
they've got to carry an extra six tons of fuel.
This is in case they need to divert at the
last minute somewhere else. Now Ohakia usually stands in as
the backup. But since the pandemic, the Air Force Bass
(00:21):
controllty I hasn't been staffed overnight. Kath O'Brien is the
Barnes executive director and joins me this evening. Get a
cath ning Ryan is six just to start with six tons?
Is that heaps? So how much do the big jets
usually carry on with them?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah? Well, I think the important thing to think about
is that, yes, it's six ton, but if you're carrying
six ton of jet fuel, that means you cannot carry
the equivalent weight of passengers or cargo. So not only
are you having to carry the extra wright of the
of the jet fuel, but you're actually losing out on
carrying more passengers to New Zealand. And some aircraft are
(00:57):
having to fly and limited in the seats they can sell,
so they actually can't sell the whole plane because they
have to carry that extra fuel?
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Does it how much does it extra? Does it cost them?
And do you run into this problem? And is presumably
not in Australia, they have somewhere else to go.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Oh, it costs the jet fuel. I think publicly available
information it's probably somewhere maybe six kindred jets who we
might get some change out of ten thousand New Zealand dollars,
but of course airlines will henche it out over time.
But it's a daily cost. If you're flying to New
Zealand daily, and bearing in mind you're probably paying something
like forty five thousand dollars to actually just land your
(01:35):
plane in New Zealand between airport charges and customs and buyosecurity,
and then you've got another ten for your extra jet fuel.
And that's before you pay your staff, or buy your
ordinary fuel, or buy your food, or pay for your
waste or anything else. And the thing is, it really
starts to make it a hard business to do when
all those costs.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
That up one hundred percent. So what's the solution.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Look For a long time now, we've been talking about
making Hackey are available so you know, for those who
don't know, a Hackey is not far from Palmerston North.
It's a wonderful military base that serves New Zealand's defense needs.
It's also able to act as an ultimate which means
that airlines that are flying to New Zealand can plan
to fly to a Hakier instead of Auckland or christ Church,
(02:20):
which is essentially a shorter distance to fly to a Hakia,
saving the jet fuel. And if they're available around the clock,
they can receive you know, five or six large planes
in an emergency if we really did lose capability at
Aukland or christ Church. So it's a very you know,
operationally important airport. But since the pandemic it hasn't been
(02:41):
available at nighttime. Why not look primarily because we had
a bit of a challenge with firefighters, which the Defense
Force has resolved, and now we continue to have a
challenge with air traffic controllers. And you know, it is
a big effort to train specialized staff like that and
have them based you know, not far from Bulls. But
(03:05):
it's a really critical think it actually wouldn't really cost
that much money to kind of fix and it's probably
the biggest bang for buck that we could do for
New Zealand aviation and tourism because with that staffing, airlines
could come to New Zealand anytime. They could plan to
come at any hour of the night. But at the moment,
(03:26):
long haul aviation is limited to plan for New Zealand
between you know, essentially first thing in the morning and
later into the evening, and then that's it.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Would it genuinely well, I mean obviously there are those benefits.
Would it bring down the cost of a ticket?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Well, certainly, it saves obviously that cost of the additional fuel,
and then it allows you to sell or tickets in
more cargo, more customer tickets and more cargo, so it
spreads the cost over the whole aircraft. So it is beneficial.
But I think what it also does is we'll remote
competition because more airlines will be able to plan journeys
(04:03):
here when we've got more operational capability like that.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
We haven't talked about fanoa Paie. Is that not suitable?
Too small?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Look, it's essentially not for lots of reasons, not least
because of the housing that's really close around it, and
also because O'haka is beautifully placed right sort of almost
smack in the middle between Auckland and christ Church, which
are New Zealand's sort of significant jet ports excluding Queenstown.
(04:32):
Then you know, it's a lovely middle point. So it's
so physically it's in the right place. In fact, you know,
ever since New Zealand civil aviation system was designed way
back in you know, nineteen forty, Ohakia was noted to
be the most sensible ultimate so it's always been it's
just that we haven't been able to resell it in
recent years.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
How come what's the problem with just going to christ Church?
Like if you can't get to talk and go to
christ Church vice versa.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Well, certainly lots of airlines do that now, So if
you can't have access to a hockey are, you'll go
to christ Church. The trick about christ Church is that
sometimes it's fobby, and that happens quite regularly through the year,
and sometimes christ Church will do really important runway maintenance
(05:18):
so they will close their runway in a planned way,
and so at those times airlines can't plan for christ Church.
And over the last couple of years we have had
multiple and multiple and multiple examples of very large, well
known international airlines sitting up in their home countries with
a full plane waiting to take off to New Zealand
and being unable to depart because New Zealand is effectively
(05:40):
not open.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
God, that's embarrassing.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Yeah it is, Yeah it is. And it's a problem
that we could really easily fix for not particularly much money,
and I just don't understand why we can't.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Catho Brian appreciate your time, Border Airline Representatives, New Zealand
Executive Director. For more from Heather Dup and Drive, listen
live to News Talks at B from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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