AIR TERMINAL AT HAREWOOD

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27395, 7 July 1954, Page 11

AIR TERMINAL AT HAREWOOD

COUNCIL’S PLAN FOR BUILDING

DISCUSSION TODAY BY COMMITTEE

The difficulty of forecasting future passenger requirements will be one of the main problems to be faced by the Christchurch City Council when it considers the project for a combined internal and overseas passenger reception centre for .Christchurch airport. A preliminary sketch plan and report, drawn up by the City Engineer’s Department, is to be considered by the council's airport committee, a subcommittee of the by-laws committee, this afternoon. The committee will discuss the plan in an attempt to find a basis to advise the council on its future policy. The plan has been made using assumptions as to future requirements for air travel: However, recent figures for use of the airport show the difficulty of making the assumptions correctly. Compared with a total of 10,005 passengers using National Airways Corporation flights in the quarter ended June, 1949, a total of 264,008 passengers used them for the quarter ended December, 1953. The total of overseas passengers has increased from about 800 a month in 1952 to about 1200 a month in 1954. These figures are for traffic before the institution of the new services with Australia.

Inquiries Overseas The council is therefore faced with the difficulty of deciding the size of a building which will be adequate for future demands.

Inquiries made by the council show that airport authorities in most parts of the world have to cope with a similar problem of expansion as there - are very few with adequate and up-to-date buildings. These inquiries have had only very moderate results, but the information obtained, although limited, is still valuable. The Civil Aeronautics Administration of the United States has provided graphs for ascertaining the areas that should be allocated for waiting rooms, ticket lobbies, restaurants and other services in proportion to the traffic at peak hours. These will be applied to the Christchurch airport. The cpuncil has also been in touch with the Civil Aviation Administration, but has not yet found its requirements for the housing of various services. The draft plan to be discussed today is a fairly ambitious one. It envisages the best of ticket, waiting room, and restaurant facilities for passengers and their friends. Cost will be an important matter for discussion. So far the arrangement has been for the Government and the council to share the costs of maintenance and development at Harewood—the council bought the land and the Government provided the runways.