page_title: Whangarei Airport
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Whangarei Airport / History
caption_attribution_description: Onerahi airfield 1942
context_page_description: Whangarei Airport is a small airport 4 nautical miles to the south east of Whangarei city, in the suburb of Onerahi, on the east coast of Northland in the North Island of New Zealand. The airport has a single terminal with two gates.
context_section_description: The first aerodrome in Whangarei was located on Pohe Island, in the upper reaches of Whangarei Harbour. Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's aircraft, the Southern Cross, landed on Pohe Island in 1928. This airstrip was not of high quality due to it being built on boggy reclaimed land, so a more suitable site was required. Another site was considered, at Kensington Park, but in May 1939 the current site was opened at Onerahi.
  With the outbreak of World War II, immediately after the establishment of the airfield, the airport was taken over by the RNZAF to serve as a training base which became RNZAF Station Onerahi. Flight Lieutenant "Lou" Gates became one of the station commanders. Pilots practiced bombing raids on the nearby Matakohe Island and Rat Island. The airport was established with three grass runways. No. 20 Squadron RNZAF was formed there in August 1942 with Hawker Hind biplanes, personnel and aircraft provided from No. 6 (AC) Squadron RNZAF at Milson, Palmerston North. The squadron was disbanded in July 1943 (before being reformed elsewhere later in the war). The station was reduced to two runways (06/24 and 32/14) shortly after the war, and being converted for public use. Some of the old airforce barracks are still present today, having been converted into residential properties.
  NAC the National Airways Corporation began twice daily commercial flights between Whangarei and Auckland in 1948, using Lockheed Electra 10 seater aircraft. NAC replaced the Electra in March 1950 with small de Havilland Dominie 6 seater aircraft, as the airport was too small to handle the new Lockheed Lodestar aircraft that was now in use. The aircraft's small size meant it serviced Whangarei with six return flights daily from Auckland. 10,148 people flew to and from Whangarei in 1950. The runway, 06/24 was upgraded and sealed in December 1963 to its current length of 1097 m, to allow NAC to commence commercial flights with the much larger DC3s. A new airport terminal was built on the northern side of the main runway to cater for future growth. A new control tower was also built. The larger capacity of the DC3 meant Whangarei was serviced only twice daily to Auckland, with some flights continuing north onwards to Kaikohe or other Northland airports.
  In August 1970, NAC replaced their DC-3 service to Whangarei with larger Fokker Friendships. Northern Districts Aero Club introduced a twice daily return air taxi service to compete and provide additional frequency to Auckland on each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The service, which operated under the name of Executive Air Taxis, started on 21 August 1970 using a newly imported Piper Cherokee Six. This service proved to be popular, and was expanded by the end of 1974 to offer a twice daily Monday to Friday morning and afternoon return service to Auckland. Northern Districts Aero Club were able to fund new clubrooms and hangar in 1977.
  In 1988, NAC's successor Air New Zealand announced the withdrawal of their twice-daily Friendship service in favour of their newly purchased subsidiary Eagle Airways offering up to five Embraer Bandeirante flights a day. This led to the decline and eventual end of the Northern Districts Aero Club scheduled flights to Auckland. The control tower was closed down in 1988 as the airport was deemed too small to continue the service.
  In 1991, a new airline, Ansett New Zealand, began flying to Whangarei in competition to Air New Zealand. Both airlines flew Bandeirantes, with Ansett also flying Dash 8's, and the terminal was further upgraded due to this growth.
  In September 1998, Ansett New Zealand withdrew its service. To help meet the demand for additional seats, Eagle Airways increased its services by 14 per week, bringing the number of Bandeirante flights to Whangarei to 69 flights. This compared with Air New Zealand's previous service of 14 Friendship flights a week.
  In 2001, Eagle Airways purchased 16 new Beechcraft 1900D aircraft and begun using this aircraft on all routes, retiring the Bandeirante aircraft being used. They were able to introduce new services with th
caption: Whangarei airport, 1942
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