Published HBT 27 March 2015
Meaningful consultation is needed before a final decision is made to change the name of Hawke’s Bay Airport. Discussions with Mana Ahuriri and the HDC were informal and in my view amounted to an ambush with insufficient warning given to consider the ramifications such as financial implications.
Most airports have aligned their names and 3 letter IATA codes with city names. Mangere was changed to Auckland(AKL), Rongotai to Wellington(WLG), Harewood to Christchurch(CHC), and Momona to Dunedin(DUD) to name a few. Hawke’s Bay Airport (NPE) is actually an exception though the brand Hawke’s Bay is well recognised. Australia also aligns airport and city names as in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. Whilst John F Kennedy Airport in New York (JFK) has been used to as an example of where alignment doesn’t apply, not naming airports after their host cities generally happens only in super cities with multiple airports such as in London (Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stanford).
Adding the name Ahuriri to Hawke’s Bay Airport will be confusing and costly. To people outside of Hawke’s Bay the word is unknown except perhaps in North Otago where apparently there is another Ahuriri. The implications with GPS navigation systems, maps, telephone directories and all manor of things have not been considered, and the name may be ignored by the aviation industry.
By all means use the name Ahuriri for the access road to the airport industrial zone, the terminal building, or even the entire area of land uplifted during the1931 earthquake, but not the airport. That it is Te Reo is irrelevant. Renaming the airport Ahuriri simply has no merit.
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