Hawke's Bay Airport accused of keeping aircraft out

Turbulence is brewing in Hawke's Bay with accusations the region's airport is more focused on commercial business interests than actual aviation.

It comes during a complete shake-up in management, with several changes in staff.

At Hawke's Bay Airport, some say you will soon be welcomed to a solar farm or industrial site rather than an airport.

Whilst the airport opened its newly renovated terminal last year, it also wants to build a solar farm and a 10-hectare business park.

Entrepreneur Sean Colgan was not impressed.

He wanted to have an aeroplane that could fly in and out of Napier to support his business interests, and needed an airport hangar to do so.

The airport "had not been treating us at all, they won't answer any questions", he said.

It did not make sense, he added.

"All the other airports welcome aeroplanes - that's what they do. Only in Napier do you have this dichotomy of 'we're an airport but we don't want aeroplanes'".

Tony Johnson was in the same position - he also wanted to build a private hangar.

He had been trying to speak to the airport for three years, only to get pushed away.

"I've endeavoured to move their position through logic and argument but they just do not want to listen ... they seemed to have missed the point that it is actually an airport and there's only one place that aircraft can operate."

Long-time pilot Gerald Grocott said "we've degraded rail services into Hawke's Bay, there's no passenger services any more - we've degraded Napier-Taupō Rd, State Highway 5 with speed limits and lack of infrastructure support, and I'm worried we're going to do exactly the same to Hawke's Bay Airport."

Without the smaller operators - what is called general aviation - there would not be an aviation industry, he said.

"The regional airport's job is really to provide a vegetable garden, a nurturing ground for these young folk so that when the airlines or the industry in general wants it, they can come and use their little knife and cut off how many pilots or engineers they want. But if the garden isn't nurtured, there's nothing to yield."

The airport is publicly owned - 50 percent by the Crown, 26 percent by Napier City Council and 24 percent by Hastings District Council.

Grocott organised a meeting with Napier mayor Kirsten Wise to express the group's concerns.

But Wise said she could not interfere with the airport's business decisions.

"As a shareholder of the airport, it isn't our role to get involved in operational matters such as that, so the bulk of our conversation was actually around the governance of the airport," she said.

Together, the Napier and Hastings councils choose two of the four board members. Wise said they would likely appoint new board members later this year.

"We're always reviewing what the skill mix is on any boards that we're responsible for appointing. So certainly, when we look to recruit for the next appointment, we'll be ensuring that we've got the appropriate skill to slot into the existing board members."

Hawke's Bay Airport chief executive Rob Stratford, who has been in the job for about two months, declined to be interviewed.

But a PR representative sent through a statement attributed to him.

"We are actively engaged with the general aviation community at Hawke's Bay Airport. I've recently had a constructive meeting with a representative of the community, who reported back to the groups' AGM this week, and have a number of meetings planned with individual members," it said.

Grocott, who met with Stratford, agreed that the meeting was "very constructive".

As well as the former chief executive leaving in the past year there have been changes in some of the airport's other key management positions, like operations and commercial managers.