The Star: April 13, 2023
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong> Thursday <strong>April</strong> <strong>13</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />
16<br />
OPINION<br />
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz<br />
Airport pipe-dream makes<br />
A Tarras<br />
airport is<br />
a ‘nut-bar<br />
idea’, says<br />
Canterbury<br />
Mornings<br />
host on Newstalk ZB<br />
Christchurch John<br />
MacDonald<br />
IT JUST doesn’t make sense in<br />
any way, shape or form for the<br />
city council’s airport company<br />
to keep up this pipe-dream of<br />
building another airport in<br />
Central Otago.<br />
Tarras is the location. And<br />
you’ll remember how a few<br />
years back the airport company<br />
bought a fair bit of land down<br />
there – 750 hectares.<br />
But it wasn’t until media got a<br />
whiff of it that it announced – or<br />
was forced to announce – its<br />
plan to set up another airport<br />
to service Queenstown and<br />
Wanaka.<br />
It wants a slice of the action<br />
from that market, which I can<br />
kind of understand.<br />
And if Queenstown and<br />
Wanaka airports can’t be<br />
extended, then I can see why<br />
some people would think<br />
building another one nearby is<br />
the answer.<br />
And, to be honest, until now<br />
PROTEST: Activists from the ‘350 Christchurch’ climate crisis movement made a<br />
submission on the Tarras airport plan at last week’s city council meeting.<br />
I’ve never really felt strongly<br />
either way. Until now.<br />
Unlike those who are<br />
concerned about the whole<br />
environmental thing and think<br />
it’s nuts to be building more<br />
airports and aren’t happy about<br />
how this thing could impact the<br />
natural environment at Tarras.<br />
Aviation, of course, is in the<br />
gun big time when it comes to<br />
climate change.<br />
And some in the aviation<br />
sector are responding.<br />
For example, Schiphol Airport<br />
in Amsterdam – which is one<br />
of the world’s busiest airports –<br />
announced last week that it was<br />
going to ban private jets from<br />
using the airport, reduce hours<br />
and scrap a plan to build a new<br />
runway.<br />
Christchurch Airport, though,<br />
wants to build a whole new<br />
airport – about 400km from the<br />
city it serves.<br />
And 400km from the city that<br />
its owners – the city council –<br />
want more people to come to.<br />
<strong>The</strong> environmental people who<br />
aren’t happy with Christchurch<br />
Airport’s plan to expand into<br />
central Otago are really ramping<br />
things up at the moment, too.<br />
Turning up at city council<br />
meetings with their ‘No New<br />
Airports’ banners. <strong>The</strong>y’re doing<br />
the same down south with the<br />
Otago Regional Council and<br />
Central Otago council.<br />
But the reason I’ve had this<br />
realisation that this new airport<br />
is a nut-bar idea, comes from<br />
ChristchurchNZ’s intention<br />
to market Christchurch to the<br />
world as the City of Play.<br />
And how there’s going to be<br />
this big effort to shift peoples’<br />
thinking of Christchurch as a<br />
gateway to the rest of the South<br />
Island. And, instead, promote it<br />
as a destination in itself.<br />
So, why on earth would you<br />
want to build another airport –<br />
400km away from Christchurch<br />
– if you want this place to be the<br />
destination, not just part of the<br />
journey?<br />
Well, you wouldn’t. Unless<br />
you’re Christchurch Airport,<br />
which wants to make it easier<br />
for more people to skip across<br />
the Tasman and completely<br />
avoid Christchurch, at the same<br />
time as the local tourism agency<br />
is trying to get people to stop<br />
using Christchurch as a stepping<br />
stone and to treat it more as a<br />
destination.<br />
And what makes this situation<br />
particularly oddball, is the fact<br />
both these organisations – the<br />
tourism agency and the airport<br />
– both of them are owned by the<br />
Christchurch City Council.<br />
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