New Plymouth Airport to become international

New Plymouth Regional Airport will in the near years to come, become an international airport. New Plymouth Youth In Politics reports.

New Plymouth Youth In Politics, following 2013 local body elections have been working on stories that affect New Plymouth, and the airport has been a key story. 

We can reveal New Plymouth Airport is to become international in the next few years, a notable but anonymous source has told us. 

This comes just as the New Plymouth Airport 2013 passenger numbers came out in a sky rocketing way. 

The latest figures show last year was a record year for the airport, with the number of people flying in and out of New Plymouth increasing from 310,943 in 2012, to 332,178 in 2013.

This year is already off to a record start with an extra 4000 passengers through the airport in January.

With these figures the New Plymouth District Council have said that a new terminal building extension is being designed, for construction planned in 2015. 

If you thought that was enough of a surprise, there is more as Taranaki Daily News reports. 

This coming year could be another record-breaker as Air New Zealand moves to increase the capacity of its flights.

On Wednesday the number of passenger flights each day will change from 26 to 28, including having the larger ATR-72 planes coming to the airport six times a day instead of the current two.

That will increase the number of available seats - up from 1076 seats to 1616.

Airport manager Kevin Hill believed the increase was largely from business passengers.

"Generally the passenger mix is fifty-fifty business and leisure, but January's 20 per cent rise was because of crew changes on the deep- sea drilling programme," he said.

"I think we're seeing the result of Taranaki's buoyant economy, with the petrochemical industry driving the increase to a certain extent."

1964 OPENING DESIGNED FOR 60,000 PASSENGERS 

New Plymouth Airport's terminal building was opened in 1964 and was designed only to hold 60,000 passengers per year.