Minister’s plan to avoid airport closures welcomed

The New Zealand Airports Association (NZ Airports) has welcomed the announcement by the Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson that the Government would act to prevent meal breaks legislation causing key regional airports to close twice a day.

NZ Airports Chief Executive Kevin Ward said, “The introduction of statutory rest and meal breaks would have caused major disruptions and a loss of services to Invercargill, Gisborne, Napier, Rotorua and New Plymouth airports where there is a sole-charge air traffic controller.

Passengers and the tourism sector rely on dependable air services. Closing during normal hours is just not the way airports operate,” he said.

Mr Ward added, “The Minister has got it dead right. There was a failure of common sense under the meal breaks legislation and now we’ve all got the opportunity to help to fix this up through the legislative process.”

Mr Ward said the five regions and the aviation sector would be waiting to see if common sense prevails if there is a gap between 1 November, when the closures were due to start, and the implementation of the amended breaks legislation.

 4 September 2009