Jetstar on Marlborough radar

Marlborough Airport needs 78,000 more passengers using it a year to attract competing airlines into the market and drive down prices.

The region has long struggled with expensive flights through its two main airlines, Air New Zealand and Sounds Air.

Marlborough Airport chief executive Dean Heiford said Jetstar was ‘‘probably the most obvious’’ major airline contender to move into Marlborough.

‘‘We are on their radar,’’ he said. ‘‘The problem is the proximity of Nelson, the population of Nelson and the volume of people.’’

Heiford presented the update as part of a scheduled update on Marlborough Airport at a Marlborough District Council planning, finance and community committee last month.

He said Marlborough Airport saw about 322,000 passengers this year, a record, and up about 22,000 from last year.

Were numbers to continue on the same upward trend, it would take about four years for Marlborough to hit the estimated 400,000 passengers needed to rope in more airlines.

When councillor Jamie Arbuckle asked if Marlborough Airport could cope with another airline, Heiford said it could but there would be several hurdles to cross first.

‘‘Effectively, we would have to provide them a space in the terminal, which would mean expanding and re-arranging the terminal,’’ he said.

‘‘We’d have to look at extra apron space, because currently you can only service so many aircraft.

‘‘And, depending on the volume and number of flights the airline would want to do, we would have to seriously start looking at what’s called a parallel taxiway.’’

The taxiway could join onto the main runway and reduce the amount of time aircraft spent on it, increasing the number of flights.

‘‘One [aircraft] could be taxiing up to take off, while the other is landing,’’ Heiford said.

Marlborough Airport chairman Richard Olliver also said unlike other airports, the Ministry of Defense owned the the land underlying Marlborough Airport, not the board.