Budget airline Jetstar is urging the New Zealand Government to open up Whenuapai air force base as a secondary airport.

Jetstar chief executive Bruce Buchanan said opening up defence bases near Auckland, Sydney, and Adelaide and would promote competition that could reduce charges at existing airports, The Australian reported.

Mr Buchanan pointed to the impact of Avalon airport on Melbourne, and the Gold Coast on Brisbane, as examples of secondary airports having modified the way the major incumbents operated.

"Competition is a wonderful driver of behaviour in the industry," he said as Jetstar launched its New Zealand operations this week. Owned by Qantas, Jetstar yesterday started flying between Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington and Queenstown, replacing Qantas flights.
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Mr Mapp scrapped the previous government's plans to move the Air Force from Whenuapai to Ohakea in the middle of the North Island, and rejected any suggestion it could become a civilian airport.

Ad Feedback "The base at Whenuapai is going to stay as an air force base and there will not be civil scheduled air services out of it," he said. "That is an absolute commitment."

The Government has plans to upgrade the runway at Whenuapai, laid in 1940 at the same time as the Ohakea runway, which was recently ripped up and replaced at a cost of about $20 million.