The crew called for a local 'standby' alert after experiencing electrical problems at around 2:15pm today.

Airport operations manager Roy Bodell said the aircraft with 39 passengers onboard landed without further incident and emergency services were able to be stood down quite quickly.

  

The site has been a hive of construction activity over the last 4 weeks. "We appreciate that Higgins Contractors have pulled out all the stops to have this completed ready for the opening today", said Mr Walker.

Mayor Jono Naylor then joined Bernie Svendsen in his Austin 7 immediately after the ribbon was cut, to be in the first car to use the new route.

A new roundabout will be built at the intersection of the terminal access road with Airport Drive over the next two weeks.

Work on the Railway Road improvements are due to be completed at the end of the month.

The aircraft was a medical flight with a patient and nursing care onboard.

After declaring the emergency at approximately 10:20am, the pilot methodically worked with engineers on the ground for approximately an hour and a half to assess the extent of the problem and ways that it might be solved. Emergency services assembled at the airport in readiness to assist.

Several low passes of the aircraft enabled engineers to sight the faulty righthand main landing gear.

Although most other aircraft were diverted away from the airport during the emergency, a number were still able to land while priority was given to the emergency aircraft.

Just before mid-day the pilot made an emergency landing with the wheels down and found they supported the aircraft safely despite the fault. After slowing to a halt with the engines feathered, the patient was transfered immediately to a waiting ambulance.

Engineers from Fieldair Engineering secured the landing gear which was damaged before towing the aircraft off the runway.

Two commercial flights were delayed departure while the final emergency landing took place.

Airport Operations manager, Roy Bodell said the emergency had been handled well by all involved, with a very satisfactory outcome.

36,032 domestic passengers used the terminal building during April, bringing the total number of passengers for the calendar year to date to 138,614.

The airport company purchased the property in 1992 when it became available for sale. The Mangaone Stream will be realigned through this site as part of future runway extensions.

Tenanted until recently, the house is now being relocated to Bulls.

The alterations will provide a door at the apex of the front wall so that the tail of taller aircraft can be taken inside the hangar.

Airport operations manager, Roy Bodell says the work is being undertaken by Brunton Engineering under the guidance of Richard Woodmass.

The hangar will then be able to take aircraft tails up to 5 metres in height, such as the Beech C90 Kingair twin turbo-prop.

Mr Bodell said this work together with a major refurbishing of the main hangar doors, is to enable Flight Training Manawatu's Kingair to be kept and maintained under cover. Work is expected to be completed within two weeks.

Steve Price of Fieldair Engineering says the Garmin GPS and avionics equipment is an important part of refitting, upgrading and maintaining aircraft.

"We've traditionally worked with Astronautics equipment and the Garmin agency is a natural step as progressively more refits involve high technology 'glass cockpits'", he said.

Fieldair's instrument service division is one of the largest specialist workshops in the country outside of Air New Zealand. They currently undertake around 70% of New Zealand's gyro-based instrumentation work.

Fieldair are able to provide full support for servicing and carrying spare components for Garmin aviation equipment.

Mr Price says Fieldair have just successfully completed their first audit and systems checking by Garmin.

Fieldair have the contract for maintaining the Massey University School of Aviation Diamond aircraft which are equipped with the latest Garmin 1000 avionics.

Palmerston North Airport is the only regional airport in New Zealand that has services provided by all three of the Air NZ Link airlines.

As a consequence, the general managers of Mount Cook Airlines, Air Nelson, and Eagle Air were all present at the Coachman Hotel function along with a number of other Air NZ management.

Air New Zealand's new uniform was modelled for the audience, and Grant Kerr of Air Nelson spoke on the service changes that are coming up. The meeting was part of a series being held around New Zealand, and on offer was all the 'Grab A Seat' inventory allocations today would be Palmerston North sectors! Some great bargains have been made available throughout the day - watch the grab a seat pages on the web at http://flightbookings.airnewzealand.co.nz/vgrabview/en_NZ/.

IPC start with their 21st Commencement Ceremony at the Regent Theatre on Broadway today.

Over the next two weeks Massey University will also cap hundreds of graduates in ceremonies at the Regent Theatre. The town will join in celebrating this occassion with students. Each graduation parade will conclude at a large marquee erected in the Square for the occassion.

This venue for the occassion will also host a range of functions that help bring 'town' and 'gown' together - and one of those functions will be a farewell to Ian Warrington as he steps down from his role as regional chief executive at Massey University. Ian has steered very tangible progress in bringing the university and the community at large together. We wish you well Ian, and thank you for the great work that has been achieved over recent years.

Congratulations to all students graduating, and welcome to family and supporters.