The future of Kaitāia Airport, to be renamed Te Hiku Airport, is expected to be secured on 13 December 2024 after almost a decade of uncertainty.
Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf

An agreement due to be signed in Kaitāia on Friday aims to secure the future of New Zealand’s northernmost airport after almost a decade of uncertainty.

Since 2016, when the long-term lease on Kaitāia Airport expired, Far North District Council has had to renew the lease month by month.

Even that arrangement was supposed to end in 2023, leaving the airport in limbo and its future in doubt.

Air New Zealand pulled out of the town in 2015 but the airport is still an important transport hub, with regional airline Barrier Air operating 21 flights a week between Auckland and Kaitāia.

The airport is also used for daily flights shuttling medical staff between hospitals in Whangārei and Kaitāia, and it is a back-up transport option when roads are impassable. State Highway 1 has been closed south of Kaitāia since 2022 and the alternative route, SH10, is prone to flooding.

The terms of the 2012 Treaty settlement with Ngāi Takoto and a dispute over who should own the land have been central to the delays.

A deal to save the airport was struck in October 2023 but it has taken more than a year to hammer out the details and get a signed agreement over the line.

The final shape of Friday’s agreement will be known later in the afternoon but it is understood to involve the return of the land to Ngāi Takoto.

The land will be placed in a joint iwi-hapū trust, the ownership of which will be split 50-50 between Ngāi Takoto and three hapū of Ngāti Kāhu, another Far North iwi with connections to the land.

The trust will then lease the land to the Far North District Council for 35 years, the maximum under the Resource Management Act, for continued use as an airport.

The Crown and the council will also fund an upgrade to airport facilities, with the Crown’s share expected to be just over $5 million.

As part of Friday’s agreement, the facility is expected to be renamed Te Hiku Airport, to reflect its importance not just to Kaitāia but the wider Te Hiku area at the top of the Far North.

Far North district councillor Hilda Halkyard-Harawira, pictured with fellow councillor Tāmati Rākena.
Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf

Far North District councillor Hilda Halkyard-Harawira, who has been instrumental in getting the agreement over the line, said the airport land was taken under the Public Works Act during World War II.

One of the reasons the airport conundrum had taken so long to solve was the overlapping interests in the land.

When Ngāi Takoto settled its Treaty claims, then-Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson asked the iwi to hold those interests on behalf of iwi who had not settled.

Halkyard-Harawira said it was “wonderful” the land would be returned to mana whenua, with the blessing of all parties involved.

She said it was a great community asset that saw on average three commuter flights a day, as well as hospital staff flights and the air ambulance.

As long as business people were able to leave Kaitāia at 7am and be home by 7pm after a day of meetings in Auckland or Wellington, the town would be able to retain its talent rather than lose them to other places.

Halkyard-Harawira said an upgrade to the “shabby-chic” airport facilities was also long overdue.

As well as a terminal upgrade, improvements could include reinstatement of an emergency fuel supply, freight storage, overnight car parking, and a rental car area.

She said the council had agreed to pay an annual lease for the airport land, rather than the symbolic $1 per year paid in the past.

That would be funded by a targeted rate paid by local property owners.

Halkyard-Harawira said the Crown had “dilly-dallied” and dragged out the process, but chief negotiator Rangitane Marsden had demonstrated great patience.

Carol Berghan, Mahimaru Marae representative on the Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Takoto and chief executive of Te Hiku Iwi Development Trust, said ensuring the airport’s return had been a long and difficult process.

“There’s been some rub with councils and some rub with government. I always knew we’d get there but what I’ve learned is that the settlement process is painfully long and it takes goodwill, as well as some hard conversations,” she said.

“But I’m happy to know we’re doing something monumental for the whānau of Ōturu, of Kareponia, of Te Paatu, who were the inhabitants of that area of land a long time ago, and also to Ngāi Takoto. So today I’m a proud, proud lady of Te Hiku.”

Under the initial terms of the Treaty settlement, Berghan said Ngāi Takoto would have had to buy the airport land from the Crown at the market rate, then lease it to the council for $1 a year for 30 years – a deal no buyer would be happy with.

The airport is currently operated by council-owned company Far North Holdings, but a Kaitāia community group has expressed interest in taking on the role.

Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka is expected to sign the agreement on behalf of the government.

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