Hawke's Bay Airport , commonly referred to as Napier Airport, is

Hawke's Bay Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke. The region i ...

's main commercial

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

, serving domestic flights to the main centres of

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

and

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

as well as smaller centres such as Gisborne,

Wairoa Wairoa is a town and territorial authority district in New Zealand's North Island. The town is the northernmost in the Hawke's Bay region, and is located on the northern shore of Hawke Bay at the mouth of the Wairoa River and to the west o ...

and Blenheim. The airport is located 5.8 km from Napier and 20.7 km from Hastings. The airport is permitted to allow limited international flights for aircraft with up to fourteen people on board by prior arrangement with Air Napier or Skyline Aviation. 452,000 travellers passed through the terminal in the 12 months to June 2013. This increased to 652,426 in the 12 months to June 2017.

History

The airport is located in the Napier suburb of Westshore, and is sometimes referred to as Napier Airport. It is sited on the former

Ahuriri Lagoon Ahuriri Lagoon ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Orotū) was a large tidal lagoon at Napier, on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, that largely drained when the area was raised by the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake. Before the earthquake, the lagoon ...

, an area which was raised above sea level by the

1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

. In 2010/11 the main runway was extended to 1750 metres with 240-metre Runway End Safety Areas at either end which is long enough to accommodate jet services (A320 aircraft) operated by

Air New Zealand Air New Zealand Limited () is the flag carrier airline of New Zealand. Based in Auckland, the airline operates scheduled passenger flights to 20 domestic and 30 international destinations in 18 countries, primarily around and within the Pacif ...

on domestic operations. A terminal reconfiguration, along with a full-scale security fence, would be required before scheduled domestic jet services could commence. At this stage further development to enable trans-Tasman services is not planned. Hawke's Bay Airport has received resource consent from the Napier City Council to begin Stage 1 of a significant multimillion-dollar business park development. In November 2013, Hawke's Bay Airport announced advanced planning to further lengthen its main runway from 1750m to 1940m no later than 2018, and a significant terminal expansion and redevelopment to cope with significantly higher than projected annual increases in passengers numbers. It was also named New Zealand Regional Airport of the Year 2013. Hawke's Bay Airport is currently in discussion with airline partners which could see A320 jets introduced from 2020 and new routes likely to be direct services to Queenstown initiated. In the financial year ending June 2017, the airport saw record numbers pass through its doors, at 652,426. It remains the 7th busiest airport in New Zealand. A smaller airport is located 22 km to the south, near

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

, called the Hastings Aerodrome. It is primarily used for flight training and recreational aviation, which the Hawke's Bay Airport does not offer. A new $25 million NZD terminal building opened on 5 August 2021 after numerous delays due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Airlines and destinations

References

External links

Hawke's Bay airport website
{{authority control Airports in New Zealand Buildings and structures in Napier, New Zealand Government-owned companies of New Zealand Transport buildings and structures in the Hawke's Bay Region

History

Airlines and destinations

See also

References

External links