Wellington Airport — formerly known as Rongotai Aerodrome or Rongotai Airport — is an international airport located in the suburb of Rongotai in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. It lies south-east from the city centre. It is a hub for Air New Zealand and Sounds Air. Wellington International Airport Limited, a joint venture between Infratil and the Wellington City Council, operates the airport. Wellington is the third busiest airport in New Zealand after Auckland and Christchurch, handling a total of 3,455,858 passengers in the year ending June 2022, and the third busiest in terms of aircraft movements. The airport, in addition to linking many New Zealand destinations with national and regional carriers, also has links to major cities in eastern Australia. It is the home of some smaller general aviation businesses, including the Wellington Aero Club, which operates from the general aviation area on the western side of the runway.
The airport comprises a small site on the Rongotai isthmus, a stretch of low-lying land between Wellington proper and the hilly Miramar Peninsula. It operates a single runway with ILS in both directions. The airport handles turboprop, narrow-body and wide-body jet aircraft movements. The airport is bordered by residential and commercial areas to the east and west, and by Evans Bay in Wellington Harbour to the north and Cook Strait to the south.
Wellington Airport has a reputation for sometimes rough and turbulent landings, even in larger aircraft, due to the channelling effect of Cook Strait creating strong and gusty winds, especially in pre-frontal north-westerly conditions.
History
1929–1947 Wellington Aero Club formed in 1928 and asked Wellington City Council to set aside land for an airport. In October 1928, the Council agreed to the proposal and allocated reserve land at Lyall Bay for the purpose. Up to 150 labourers levelled the sand dunes and laid down a surface of broken rock and clay to stop the sand blowing away. This was then sown with grass. The official opening of the airport took place on 16 November 1929 with flying displays by 15 aeroplanes doing "crazy flying", "bombing" and races.
The runway, which ran in a northwest to southeast alignment to match prevailing winds in the area, was extended in 1933. The first timetabled commercial flights into Rongotai Airport took place on 30 December 1935, when two de Havilland Express biplane airliners of Cook Strait Airways with paying passengers flew in from Nelson and Blenheim.
During this period, concerns about safety were raised. Early aviator Charles Kingsford Smith flew into Wellington and was said to be "perturbed" about conditions at Rongotai, where wind swirled around and the hills were very close. Along with others, he believed that Gear Island at the mouth of the Hutt River in Petone would be a better site for a commercial airport. A scale model of the landscape around the airport was made and tested in a wind tunnel, and, starting in 1936, the height of Moa Point Hill at the eastern end of Lyall Bay was lowered to improve the approach to the runway. In 1937 a government committee investigated possibilities for improving the airport, but its suggestion that a runway be constructed from north to south across the isthmus from Evans Bay to Lyall Bay, which would have entailed removal of Rongotai College and demolition or removal of up to 150 houses, was deemed unpalatable. The runway was extended and other improvements made, but the 1937 committee had warned that the airport was not safe, and finally on 27 September 1947 the airport closed and almost all commercial flights were moved to Paraparaumu Airport, north of Wellington.
1947–1959 Paraparaumu Airport soon became the country's busiest airport, but it was deemed unsuitable for large aircraft due to adverse terrain. Between 1950 and 1954, TEAL (the forerunner of Air New Zealand) also operated flying boats to Australia from a base in Evans Bay.
Rongotai was still used for a frequent service to Blenheim and Nelson in 14-seater de Havilland Herons. Wellington Aero Club continued to operate from Rongotai, and the airport was also used occasionally by Royal New Zealand Air Force aircraft as well as ambulance aircraft transporting patients to Wellington Hospital. The Aircraft Engineering Company had a flying school with three aeroplanes based at the airport, and the de Havilland Aircraft Company had an aircraft maintenance facility.
With the closure of Rongotai Airport, the government had invited a British commission to report on New Zealand airports. The Tymms Report produced in 1948 recommended that the isthmus at Rongotai was still the best site for an airport in Wellington, and Wellington City Council and the Chamber of Commerce also lobbied for the airport to be retained there. After several options for development were considered, Wellington City Council agreed to the Rongotai Terrace scheme in February 1951. This scheme saved Rongotai College and provided for a north-south runway. A major part of the scheme involved the complete removal of Rongotai Hill. Construction of the airport began in 1953, with the six-year project costing £5 million (). Spoil from Rongotai Hill was used to reclaim land in Evans Bay and Lyall Bay. About 180 houses at Rongotai Terrace and Wexford Road on the hill were demolished or relocated to the newly reclaimed land at Evans Bay.
Coutts Street had previously been the main road and tram route between Kilbirnie and the Miramar Peninsula, but the new runway cut the street in two. A pedestrian tunnel from Coutts Street to Miramar was built under the runway, and a new road to the peninsula, Cobham Drive, was built on reclaimed land at the head of Evans Bay at the north end of the runway.
1959–present The current airport was officially reopened on 25 October 1959. The original length of the runway was , but it was extended in the early 1970s to handle Douglas DC-8s.
In 1991, the airport released plans to widen the taxiway to CAA Code D & E specifications and acquire extra space, which were abandoned after protests from local residents. The plan involved the removal of the nearby Miramar Golf Course and a large number of residential and commercial properties.Page Not Found | Victoria University of Wellington The airport purchased land from the Miramar Golf Course in 1994 for car park space.
As recently as 1992, several alternate sites for Wellington Airport were considered – Te Horo, Paraparaumu, Mana Island, Ohariu Valley, Horokiwi, Wairarapa and PencarrowO'Connor, Juliet. "Birth of an airport". Evening Post, 14 June 1999, p5. – but a decision was made to upgrade the existing site at Rongotai. A major new domestic terminal was completed in 1999 and integrated with the international terminal, which had been built in 1977. A 90 m safety zone at the south end of the runway was constructed during 2006 in order to comply with ICAO safety regulations, while a similar zone was also put in place at the runway's north end.
In April 2006, Air New Zealand and Qantas announced that they proposed to enter into a codeshare agreement, arguing that it would be necessary in order to reduce empty seats and financial losses on trans-Tasman routes. The airport counter-argued that the codeshare would stifle competition and passenger growth on Wellington's international flights, pointing to what it saw as a market duopoly dominated by Air New Zealand and Qantas. The codeshare was abandoned by the two airlines after it was rejected in a draft ruling by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission in November 2006.
Fiji Airways began serving Wellington from Nadi on 25 June 2015. Australian airline Jetstar launched its first international service in December 2014 from Wellington to the Gold Coast.
On 21 September 2016 Singapore Airlines began direct flights between Singapore and Wellington via Australia's capital city Canberra.Flynn, David (20 January 2016). "Singapore Airlines to launch Singapore-Canberra-Wellington flights" . Australian Business Traveller. Retrieved 20 January 2016. It was Wellington's first direct flight to a destination outside Australia and the Pacific Islands. From April 2018, the Singapore Airlines flight began transiting via Melbourne rather than Canberra. The flights were terminated in 2020 following the COVID-19 outbreak.
Execujet (in conjunction with Capital Jet services) operates a FBO and hangar facility for corporate jets and visiting general aviation aircraft on the western apron. Other notable operators on the western apron include Life Flight, the RNZAF and the Wellington Aero Club.
Beginning in 2002, the airport built a bulk retail centre on land it owned to the west of the airport. Between 2009 and 2019 the airport issued various plans outlining upgrades over the next 20 years, including expanded terminal and apron space, runway extensions, terminal extensions, new freight facilities and a relocated fire station. In 2018, a nine-storey car park with more than 1,000 parking spaces was opened, and in 2019 a 134-room hotel opened at the airport, with direct access from the terminal.
In 2018, a new air traffic control tower opened next to the airport retail centre. The building was designed by Studio Pacific Architecture and Paris Magdalinos Architects. The eight-storey building is constructed on a 12.5 degree angle as if leaning into the prevailing northerly wind, and is built to stand up to a 10-metre high tsunami wave. The former control tower at Tirangi Road was put up for sale by Airways New Zealand, but was found to be unsuitable for redevelopment due to structural issues and asbestos contamination. Wellington Airport bought the building and it was demolished in 2021.
Since 1998 the airport has been two-thirds privately owned by Infratil, with the remaining third owned by Wellington City Council. In late May 2024, Wellington City Council voted in favour of selling its 34% minority stake (worth NZ$278 million) in Wellington Airport, with the proceeds going towards a major disaster investment fund. However, the sale was halted in October the same year, after a majority of councillors backed out of the deal.
On 22 November 2024, Wellington Airport announced a rebrand and a NZ$500 million investment in infrastructure over five years. The plan includes the installation of an Engineered materials arrestor system (EMAS) at each runway end, upgrades to the terminal, and new community spaces in Lyall Bay.
Terminal Development
Wellington's original domestic terminal was built as a temporary measure inside an existing corrugated iron hangar, originally used to assemble de Havilland aircraft. It was known for being overcrowded, leaky and draughty.
An international terminal was opened in 1977. An upgrade of the domestic terminal, budgeted at NZ$10 million, was announced in 1981, but by 1983 the plans were shelved after cost projections more than doubled. The terminal was extensively refurbished in 1987 by Air New Zealand, and Ansett New Zealand built a new terminal as an extension to the international terminal when it commenced competing domestic air services in 1987.