Mark Morgan: Hamilton Airport CEO on Jetstar launching direct international flights from Hamilton

A win for Waikato, with international flights set to return from next year.

Jetstar's launching new routes from Hamilton to Sydney and the Gold Coast in June.

The city's been without trans-Tasman flights since 2012.

Hamilton Airport CEO Mark Morgan says the announcement's significant for the region's future.

"It places some credibility back into the mighty Waikato - and just positions us for opportunities that we would not have been able to consider without this current opportunity." 

Jetstar's also launched a new route from Dunedin to the Gold Coast - the first international flights out of Otago since 2020.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good news for the tron also dined and of course
the airport's going international again after jetstarstruck a deal to
fly Transtasment as of next year. So from Hamilton you're
going to have roots to the Gold Coast in Sydney.
It's been fourteen years since Hamilton was international. The airport's CEO,
Mark Morgan's with us on this, Mark, very good morning
to you.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good morning Mike, thanks for having me on board.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Not at all. How long has this been in the wings?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Look, it's really been twelve months, but intensely since about
March this year.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Who approaches who look for.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
These conversations you often get it's generally the airline that
make approaches to the airport companies, although we remain sort
of alert and open to opportunities. But in this situation, yes,
it was. It was just Star.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
And do you, having been international before, have the capacity
I assume you do to become international again.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yet we do. Look, we are all of our aeronautical infrastructure,
is there, our runways long enough and we have the
northern end of the terminal that was the international terminal
and that would be refitted over the next three or
four months. So yes, we are ready to go and
there are no issues other than standing of course up
the border agencies, and that is all under finalization at

(01:14):
the moment.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Gold Coast and Sydney only, or Gold Coast in Sydney
with a be to going somewhere else potentially.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Look, I think we would like we see this almost
as a beachhead. So that's our approach to this opportunity
that it places some credibility back into the mighty Whitecatto,
not the tron Mic. And we see this as an
opportunity for future activity, whether it be future commercial services.

(01:41):
It provides a fail over service for other airports in
the event of bad weather or runway closures. So generally
it just positions us for opportunities that we would not
have been able to consider without this current opportunity.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Do you see it as viable in the sense that
people from White Katto go presumably to Auckland.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
That's right. Well, I think there's two aspects. There's exactly
that aspect, and we know that getting in and out
of Auckland is more challenging than it was. The White
Cattow is the fastest growing region Hamilton City, so in
the last thirteen or fourteen years the demographics have changed,
so that makes it a much more viable proposition. And

(02:25):
so we believe that you can't draw a comparison back
to thirteen or fourteen years ago. It is a different
time and a unique set of circumstances. Now that provides
this opportunity.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Middle of next year, you go, well, well, that appreciated
very much, Mark Morgan, who's the Hamilton Airport CEO. And
one assumes a boon time for to who you are,
because surely the first thing you do when your Jetstar
plane lands and Hamilton is go directly to the train
or as I just making that up.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
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