Airport reaction mixed | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

The four directors of Hawke's Bay Airport's new company have been given mixed approval from a member of the Runway Hawke's Bay Trust.

Jim Scotland and Stuart Webster were appointed by the Crown and Tony Porter and John Palairet were appointed by the Hastings district and Napier city councils to the Hawke's Bay Airport company this week.

Runway Hawke's Bay trustee Simon Nixon said although the trust supported all the directors, he was disappointed two of the people the councils appointed had been on the former airport authority.

He said the council-appointed directors had done little to scrutinise a 2003 report, which said extending the runway would bring no benefits to the region.

A few years later, the trust and councils separately commissioned their own reports and both identified returns for Hawke's Bay.

Mr Nixon said he did support the appointment of Mr Webb, a former Runway Hawke's Bay trustee, and Mr Scotland, of the Port of Napier, to the airport company.

The trust wanted to see the company present a business plan to the Government on the runway extension instead of first waiting to secure a new carrier.

Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule said building the runway would be the priority, then securing a domestic carrier to offer customers better options and competitive ticket prices throughout New Zealand.

A transTasman service would follow.

``What I am hearing is that there are a lot of disgruntled people in the community unhappy because they have to pay high airfares,'' Mr Yule said.

``The cost of domestic travel (into Hawke's Bay) is dearer than what you can get on the main trunk lines,'' he said.

Mr Yule said the directors would soon meet to appoint a chairman and it would be their job to prepare a business plan for the airport's development.

``We have done all of the technical work, the engineering side of things,'' he said, ``but now we need to build a business case.''