Townsville journalists seize on stuck PM

A trying day for John Key ended in a Townsville pub with a cold orange juice after several attempts to get to India failed on Monday.

But ‘‘India’s loss’’ turned out to be ‘‘Townsville’s gain’’ after the local paper, the Townsville Bulletin, tracked down New Zealand’s prime minister and got him to back a big local issue – direct flights from the Queensland town to Auckland.

Key’s comments about the town and potential direct flights were plastered over the front page of the paper yesterday.

Key was at the Brewery on Monday afternoon with his wife, Bronagh, after not one but two attempts to get to the Indian city of Mumbai failed due to a technical fault with the airforce plane.

Key and his business delegation had an unintended night in Townsville after a replacement plane had to be sent over by the New Zealand Air Force. The party was set to fly straight to New Delhi at 11am (NZ time).

The Mumbai leg of the trip had been cancelled, which Key said was ‘‘disappointing’’ but it was a case of ‘‘rolling with the punches’’.

Key told The Bulletin he thought a direct flight was a ‘‘great idea if they can get it to happen’’.

Townsville’s recently-opened international airport was considering New Zealand, Singapore and Papua New Guinea as the three main contenders for a direct flight. Key said he was impressed with the town and called it a ‘‘lovely place’’. ‘‘Townsville is much bigger than I thought and has a great feeling to it.’’ NZ First defence spokesman Ron Mark said the breakdown of the air force’s Boeing 757 raised questions about the wisdom and cost of using the planes for prime ministerial visits. Mark said Key should either charter Air New Zealand planes for the trips or fund a prime ministerial plane through the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, instead of the Defence Force. The technical problems also showed the issues with commercial jets which flew too infrequently in military service, he said. ‘‘Aircraft are much easier to maintain if they’re kept flying than sitting on the tarmac.’’ Instead of replacing the 757s, Mark said the money should go towards military transport aircraft.