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Westport Airport (NZWS/WSZ) serves the town of Westport on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island, offering a single sealed runway used today by scheduled Originair services to Wellington. Its history stretches back to the late 1940s, when it linked Westport with Nelson, Hokitika and Wellington, and it remains a useful VFR destination for pilots exploring the rugged West Coast.
Westport Airport lies at Kawatiri, on the outskirts of Westport in New Zealand's West Coast region. It is a small regional airport that has hosted scheduled air services since the late 1940s and today is served by Originair flights to Wellington. For a simulator pilot, Westport offers a straightforward single-runway approach set against the dramatic backdrop of the Tasman Sea coastline and the Paparoa ranges, making it an appealing waypoint on a South Island touring route.
The airport sits at Kawatiri, on the edge of the town of Westport in the West Coast Region of New Zealand's South Island. Air traffic in the area is worked by Christchurch Flight Information Service (FIS), reflecting the airport's location within uncontrolled airspace typical of New Zealand's smaller regional aerodromes.
Westport has one physical runway, 04/22, of 4,152 feet with a hard surface and runway lighting. There is no ILS.
The airport is served by an AFIS facility on 118.7 MHz, with Christchurch providing Flight Information Service. The common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF) is 119.1 MHz.
Air services to Westport date back to 1947, when Air Travel connected the town to Nelson and south to Hokitika. The National Airways Corporation (NAC) later took over these routes to Wellington using Dragon Rapide aircraft, and from March 1952 the larger Douglas DC-3 was introduced on the Westport-Nelson-Wellington run. Passenger numbers were modest but growing, with 7,557 passengers handled in the year to March 1966, up from 6,615 the previous year. The runway was sealed in October 1970, enabling Fokker Friendship services from Christchurch via Hokitika and on to Nelson and Wellington six days a week, with both northbound and southbound flights arriving at Westport in the afternoon. The terminal building was refurbished in 2007.
Originair currently operates the only scheduled service into Westport, flying eighteen-seat BAE Jetstream 31 aircraft to Wellington. Air New Zealand, through its Eagle Airways subsidiary, previously flew daily Beechcraft 1900D services until April 2015, when Sounds Air took over the Wellington route using a nine-seat Pilatus PC-12 for around ten years before withdrawing due to reduced government support and rising costs. Air Chathams also operates ad-hoc Saab 340 flights into Westport. The airport is operated by Buller District Council.
