Mana whenua plans to buy back Kāpiti Coast airport land

A Kāpiti Coast hapū wants to buy back the land where the local airport is located, more than eight decades after the Crown seized it from their ancestors.

But Puketapu ki Paraparaumu chairperson Tony Jackson, whose grandmother was one of the land’s original owners, said the hapū would need more investors to turn its plans for the airport’s land, which included housing and a technology sector, into a reality.

“If you don’t make the opportunity to people, nothing happens,” he told The Post on Friday. “There needs to be a shared sort of vision and commitment to making this work.”

If it succeeded, it would bring an end to years of wrangling between the current developer owners, who wanted to close the airport to build houses, and locals, including the Kāpiti Coast District Council, that wanted the airport to keep open.

The Crown seized the land in 1939 from the hapū under the Public Works Act to build a military aerodrome for the war before privatising it in 1995. A further sale of surplus land by the new owner four years later sparked a week-long occupation at the airport. The law required the land to be first offered back to original Māori owners.

The Crown admitted to the Waitangi Tribunal in 2022 it breached Te Tiriti o Waitangi for not protecting Puketapu’s interests over the 1999 sale, tracking back from its previous position that it was impractical for the private owner to offer surplus land back to Puketapu. It was yet to offer any redress to the hapū.

Jackson said getting the land back was one of the hapū’s goals and it would heal a bit of hurt. He said the longer the wait for the Crown’s redress to get back their land, the more that the hapū would miss out. It recently bought parts of Kāpiti Landing, the airport’s business park, where a hardware store is located.

“There’s been half a dozen owners since it was originally sold by the Crown 30 years and they’ve all come and gone and made profits,” he said. “We’re still on the outside of the fence. We’re missing opportunities commercially, financially.”

The hapū’s plans would keep the airport open and develop its vacant areas for mixed uses to attract businesses to create local employment, such as a local avionics and technology industry.

Seeking for suitable investors to work with would be a tall order, but Jackson believed it was a chance for hapū to be involved. “If you don’t ask, you don’t know,” he said.

Mayor Janet Holborow said the hapū had a “creative” vision for the airport’s future. “It means this area will be able to be used for the benefit for the whole community. It will be able to be a real asset to Kāpiti.”

Local MP Tim Costley, who founded a pressure group to keep the airport open in 2020, said he was excited to see the hapū’s proposal when it was ready and he would back any plans to retain a functional airport.

“I’m really keen to see any options on the table that achieve this for resilience in emergencies and connectivity to bring more visitors in and deliver growth to our region,” he said.

“I support mixed use of the land that supports a functional airport and options like a hotel or tech hub would be great to see.”

Puketapu ki Paraparaumu Trust was established in 2021 to represent hapū interests (including airport land successors in title, Treaty of Waitangi claims and other associated opportunities) and to manage the process on their behalf.

Te Kāhui Mahi is the name given to the group working together to either develop an outcome for the airport and whenua in its own right, or to represent Puketapu ki Paraparaumu hapū in partnerships with public and private sector entities necessary to achieve our shared vision, which is acknowledged in this Statement of Intent.

This story was written by Justin Wong and published by The Post – August 25, 2025

Read the original story on The Post website, here.