Requests from aircraft owners wanting hangar space at Whakatāne Airport have been heard by Whakatāne District Council, which has purchased 2.3 hectares of land for the purpose.

The land is located just to the west of the existing row of hangars.

Council infrastructure general manager Bevan Gray says an agreement to purchase the land was first entered into in August 2019.

The council paid $110,000 for the land from the owner of land adjoining the airport. In addition, as part of the agreement, council met all costs associated with obtaining the resource consent and completing the subdivision to create the lot purchased.

The purchase was settled on August 5 last year.

However, substantial earthworks are required to make it suitable for airport activities and there is currently no funding in the council's long-term plan for this work to take place.

Staff are arranging to lease the land to a farmer until it can be developed.

In the meantime, council is also investigating the potential for some low-cost hangars as a short- term solution for the lack of hangar space.

In a report received by council last week, Mr Gray says three aircraft owners have approached council, asking if they could construct low-cost hangars within the airport operational area.

The proposed hangars are made by Auckland-based supplier Smart Shelters and have a Poly Ethelene fabric covering over steel arched frames anchored to the ground on two metre high wooden posts.

While they were of high construction quality designed for New Zealand conditions, at $55,000 each, they were about a quarter of the price of a high-end hangar made from steel panels.

Gray's report suggests a potential site for this type of hangar could be between the terminal building and the helicopter terminal - just to the east of the main terminal – although this would need to be investigated further with other airport users.

The aircraft owners proposed to fund construction of hangars and consent costs themselves.

However, Gray says staff would also investigate options for council to loan fund, and recoup costs through the hangar leases.

'This option would allow council to have more control over what type of structures were installed and possibly provide cost efficiencies if several hangers were built together rather than two or three individual ones."

Gray proposes investigating the opportunity with the Airport User Group and local iwi to assess the level of support for the proposal and location options.

Airport under-utilised and under-equipped

The need for hangar space for private aircraft has increased significantly in recent years say members of Whakatāne's aero club, Eastern Bay of Plenty Aviation Sports Club.

Club president Bryan Flanagan says it's something he has been trying to 'push along” for a couple of years now.

Whakatāne aircraft owners Jack Schulte and Bryan Flanagan are just two of the many who would like to see more hangar space made available at the airport. Photo: Troy Baker.

The club currently has just under 50 members, with about 13 owning their own aircraft.

'I know of at least eight or nine that would like hangars and more that would buy planes if there was somewhere to keep them. It's a matter of build it and they will come.”

He says if they are not able to keep aircraft at the airport, they would be forced to move them out of town.

Taking the Beacon on a tour of the privately owned hangars that rent space within the airport's operational zone, Flanagan showed one hangar with over a dozen light aircraft inside.

'[The owner] very generously allows us to store our aircraft here,” Mr Flanagan says.

However, it is not an ideal solution, as several other aircraft need to be moved before they can be taken out of the hangar.

'Another option would be to take it to Galatea or Ōpōtiki,” he says.

'It would mean an hour's drive each way but then that's an hour I wouldn't have to spend moving craft around to get it out of the hangar.”

Flanagan also pointed out the club's hangar, a long, half-round barn at the end of the row of hangars which has aircraft carefully crowded inside.

'It has a pulley system that allows us to fit five aircraft inside by pulling them in sideways. The wingspan is too wide for them to go in forward. Of course, to get the one at the back out, you have to get all the others out first.”

Flanagan says the Smart Shelters could be constructed in a matter of days and were a good 'right now solution to a right now problem” but that a more long-term view was essential if Whakatāne wanted to retain people who were looking for somewhere to keep their planes.

Whakatāne was well regarded as an excellent airfield for scenic flights and particularly good for people wanting to learn to fly as it was not too busy. He said the ripple effects of developing the airport would be beneficial for the whole community.

Someone who is fortunate enough to have his own hangar at the airport is Jack Schulte.

Originally from the United States, he is married to a Kiwi and has spent the past 20 years in New Zealand – during the summer.

In winter they follow the sunshine to the US where he lives in his hangar home in Alpine Village, an air park in Wyoming where people have homes attached to their hangars.

The homes are arranged around an airfield so they can drive their aircraft out of the hangar and take off as easily as a car owner would drive out of an internal-access garage.

Shulte says he can see plenty of scope for Whakatāne Airport but said at the moment it is 'under-equipped and under-utilised".

He says the airport has a lot of potential as an air park similar to those in other countries and there was plenty of scope for building on the northern side of the runway.

-Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air