Christchurch International Airport

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{| class="infobox bordered" style="width: 220px; font-size: 95%;" |- ! colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background-color: #4682B4; color: white;" |Christchurch International Airport

Christchurch International Airport is the primary airport that serves Christchurch, New Zealand. It is located nine kilometres to the northwest of the city centre, in the suburb of Harewood. The airport is about to embark on a major upgrade worth over $200 million dollars, which is expected to be completed by 2009, due to soaring passenger numbers.

Garden City Helicopters operates from a base adjacent to the airport. They have a medivac service using fixed wing aircraft and also operate the rescue helicopter in Canterbury with a secondary helipad in Hagley Park adjacent to Christchurch Hospital (ICAO: NZJC).

Christchurch Helicopters also operate from the western side of the airfield, next to Canterbury Aero Club, which maintains a grass runway parallel to the primary runway.

The primary runway is oriented near perpendicular to Canterbury's Nor'wester föhn wind. For this reason, the secondary runway is a cross-runway (at a right angle to the primary runway), and is used during Nor'westers by all aircraft up to and including 767s [link].

Military Operations

Since the closure of Wigram Air Force Base, the Royal New Zealand Air Force always flies to Christchurch International Airport when required to visit the city. There are regular RNZAF flights between the main centres of New Zealand. Prior to the withdrawal of the air combat wing, the RNZAF fighter aircraft were also seen at the airport.

With the development of Antarctic scientific expeditions since the 1950s, Christchurch Airport has been the base for all Antarctic flights operated by the United States Air Force and RNZAF. During the Antarctic flying season, which generally operates from August to February, C-17 Globemaster III, C-130 Hercules and LC-130 Hercules aircraft are often seen on the Antarctic Apron north of the main passenger terminals. Occasionally the C-5 Galaxy aircraft also operates for one or two flights early in the season onto the sea ice runway at McMurdo. All other aircraft types except for the LC-130, which is fitted with skis for snow landing, must operate on either sea ice or blue ice runways.

The C-141 Starlifter was also a regular visitor before its retirement from active service in 2005.

Airlines and Destinations

The following airlines fly to the airport:

Air Chathams (Chatham Islands)
Air New Zealand (Auckland, Blenheim, Brisbane, Dunedin, Hamilton, Hokitika, Invercargill, Melbourne, Napier, Nelson, Osaka-Kansai, Palmerston North, Queenstown, Rarotonga, Rotorua, Sydney, Tokyo-Narita, Wellington)
Air Pacific (Nadi) (seasonal)
Emirates (Dubai, Sydney)
Freedom Air (Brisbane, Gold Coast, Nadi)
Jetstar (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast)
Korean Air (Seoul-Incheon) (seasonal)
Origin Pacific Airways (Nelson, Wellington, Tauranga)
Pacific Blue (Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney)
Qantas (Sydney)
Qantas (Jetconnect) (Auckland, Queenstown, Rotorua, Wellington, Melbourne, Brisbane)
Singapore Airlines (Singapore)

External links

http://www.christchurch-airport.co.nz/airport/

	Airports of New Zealand
Auckland \| Christchurch \| Dunedin \| Hamilton \| Palmerston North \| Queenstown \| Wellington

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