Airport study buck passed to marketing committee

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 14, Issue 657, 8 October 1996, Page 5

Airport study buck passed to marketing committee

An investigation into the feasibility of a provincial sized airport for Ruapehu should not be funded from the Waimarino ward rate, board members decided at their October meeting. However, they did feel it should be passed on to the council's marketing subcommittee. Board member Robert Horne made the submission, saying the area would be left behind in the tourism market in the future if it did not have such a facility. He said it may not be necessary immediately but would be sometime in the next few years. In answer to points about farmers' rates funding an airport, Mr Horne said he was asking for the council to carry out the study. He conceded that council funding of the airport itself was unlikely but that it could come from airlines or from public subscription. The board heard that such studies had been done in the past and Mr Horne said he was aware of that but that none of the information was now available. He asked that if anyone had access to the old reports, that they pass it on to him. Mayor Weston Kirton supported the idea, saying the council certainly had an interest and could act as a catalyst. "In my view the community board must not shelve it," he said, "air travel is part and parcel of tourism now."