Hokitika Airport
Hokitika Aerodrome is a small, uncontrolled aerodrome located 1 NM (1.9 km) north east of Hokitika in the suburb of Seaview on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is also the closest domestic airport with scheduled flights to Greymouth 40 km further north, the largest settlement on the coast.The airport handles aircraft up to ATR 72-500 size that are operated by national airline, Air New Zealand. The busiest day is Friday with five flights to Christchurch.HistoryAir Travel (NZ) Ltd was the first airline in New Zealand to fly scheduled air services. Founded by Bert Mercer in 1934, its first scheduled flight took place on 18 December 1934, from Hokitika to Haast in South Westland. During the Second World War they also flew north from Hokitika to Greymouth, Westport and Nelson.Hokitika originally had an aerodrome on the south side of town just over the Hokitika River.The grass surfaces and susceptibility to flooding of Hokitika’s Southside airfield were always problematic. On 9 August 1948 the Southside airfield at Hokitika was closed. Plans were well underway for a new airport at Hokitika. The new Seaview airport opened on 17 December 1951. The opening also marked the extension of the Lodestar service to Westport and onto Wellington southward to Hokitika and the introduction of the larger Lodestar marked the end of NAC services to Greymouth. From this point on a road link between Greymouth town centre and Hokitika Airport was established to connect with NAC’s scheduled flights. Hokitika received its first true airliner service on 2 March 1953 when NAC introduced its 24-seater Douglas DC-3 service from Paraparaumu (Wellington being closed for the construction of the new airport), Nelson and Westport.
