NZALPA News
Latest Media Releases
December 1,
2016 1413 1413 
The New Zealand Air Line Pilots’ Association (NZALPA) today applauded the prison sentence handed down to a Christchurch man who endangered passenger aircraft with a high-powered laser pointer.
November 27,
2016 1447 1447
The New Zealand Air Line Pilots’ Association (NZALPA) today outlined its concerns to the Court of Appeal on the High Court’s decision to turn down a review of the 90-metre safety area for an extended Wellington Airport runway.
NZALPA, who was represented at the Court of Appeal by Hugh Rennie QC, were clear that this appeal was not about lack of union consultation, but that the conclusion by the Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA) Director to not review the runway extension safety area (RESA) was ‘legally and technically flawed.
October 20,
2016 1401 1401
Gordon Campbell, of werewolf.co.nz, has published an article on Scoop discussing the environmental and safety issues around the proposed Wellington Airport runway extension.
September 30,
2016 1678 1678
Recent news items on the laser incidents featuring comment from NZALPA. This will be updated as more stories appear.
September 30,
2016 11487 11487
Radio NZ interview with NZALPA President, Tim Robinson, on three laser incidents involving commercial aircraft in the past 12 hours.
August 26,
2016 1599 1599
The concerns of New Zealand pilots and air traffic controllers about the ‘woeful inadequacy’ of safety regulation around the commercial use of drones, or Unmanned Aerial System/Vehicles (UAS), are yet to be taken seriously, the New Zealand Air Line Pilots’ Association (NZALPA) said today.
Commenting on a pizza company’s plans to trial delivery by drone, NZALPA President Tim Robinson said that Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) regulations that came into force in August last year did not take into account the informed and often repeated advice of pilots and the increasing number of ‘near-miss’ accidents that have underpinned pilot’s safety fears.
August 23,
2016 1681 1681
The New Zealand Air Line Pilots’ Association (NZALPA) today said it was thrilled that the Court of Appeal has fast tracked the hearing of its appeal against the recent High Court’s decision to turn down a review of the 90-metre safety area for an extended Wellington International Airport (WIAL) runway.
August 12,
2016 2176 2176
There will be an increased risk of a serious accident or incident, especially due to larger planes using Wellington Airport unless an adequate Runway End Safety Area (RESA) of 240 metres or a recognised equivalent solution is used in the proposed runway extension, the New Zealand Air Line Pilots Association (NZALPA) said today.
Evidence for these concerns were outlined in NZALPA’s submission to the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) and Wellington City Council (WCC) on Wellington International Airport Limited’s (WIAL’s) application for resource consents for its proposed extension to the runway at Wellington Airport.
Submissions to the Wellington runway extension consent applications under the Resource Management Act closed today.
July 14,
2016 1741 1741
NZALPA’s request for a Judicial Review in relation to plans by Wellington Airport to extend its runway and more specifically its RESA have been declined by the High Court.
Our legal and technical team is currently reviewing the judgement, following which a decision will be made whether to appeal.
One of our main arguments is that the RESA being proposed for the runway extension is inadequate and that decisions around the RESA’s length were made more on the basis of cost than concerns about the safety of our members and the travelling public.
We wish to see the RESA at Wellington airport constructed in line with the international standard of 240 metres - either by physically extending the 90 metres currently proposed by WIAL or by the use of an EMAS to provide equivalence.
June 30,
2016 1932 1932
MONTREAL, Canada – The International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations (IFALPA) strongly condemns the terrorist attacks at Istanbul international airport, which follow the attacks at Brussels airport on the 22nd of March. On behalf of the more than 100,000 pilots we represent and our entire profession, our thoughts and sympathies are with the colleagues, friends and families of those innocent travellers and airport workers whose lives have been cruelly taken.