Hawke's Bay Airport, sometimes referred to as Napier Airport, is Hawke's Bay's main commercial airport, serving domestic flights to the main centres of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch as well as smaller centres such as Gisborne, Wairoa and Blenheim. 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. In November 2017 a major project began to expand the terminal by 1500sqm. It is due to be completed in August 2020.
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, an area which was raised above sea level by the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake. 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 operated byAir New Zealand and Jetstar 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 ZealandRegional Airport of the Year 2013. A new $21 million terminal expansion of Hawke's Bay Airport taking the terminal footprint to 4100sqm started in April 2018 with completion scheduled for 2020. 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 7thbusiest airport in New Zealand. A smaller airport is located 22 km to the south, near Hastings, called the Hastings Aerodrome. It is primarily used for flight training and recreational aviation, which the Hawke's Bay Airport does not offer.
