Direct flights from Whangarei Airport

General Information About Whangarei Airport

Within short driving distance from Whangarei city centre, this airport serves as an important hub for travellers visiting Northland. Furthermore, microlight aircraft and Skywork and Twin Coast Helicopters based out of Whangarei operate training flights here as well.

National Airways Corporation (NAC) inaugurated commercial flights between Whangarei and Auckland for National Airways Corporation (NAC) using Lockheed Electra 10-seat aircraft on a twice daily service between 1948-1950; due to limited runway capacity at that time, these were eventually replaced with de Havilland Dominie 6-seaters in 1950.

NAC eventually withdrew from Auckland market in 1988 in favor of Eagle Airways which flew up to five Embraer Bandeirante flights a day, leading to reduced Friendship services and closing of control tower. Due to airport size limitations, aircraft such as DC3 aircraft used by NAC could no longer operate from there.

A $1.5 million project to extend and reseal the runway with 30m takeoff starter extension was successfully completed in April 2009. This enabled larger aircraft such as Bombardier Q300s to land.

In 2011, Mount Cook Airline ATR 72 aircraft operating from Gisborne for charter arrived at Gisborne airport for landing. This marked the first time such a large plane type had ever operated out of Gisborne airport.

Whangarei Airport is currently undergoing upgrades that will enable more aircraft to land and move through the terminal, and are designed to maintain modern standards while they wait for potential relocation. Should they expand significantly, additional runway extensions would likely be required as their current one does not accommodate large aircraft well enough; Whangarei District Council is investigating options to relocate their airport at another site.