Few are more excited about the Taupō Airport upgrade than those who work there and in the surrounding areas.

Taupō Airport and its surrounding industries are experiencing solid growth and looking forward to a bright and busy future, despite disruptions caused by Covid-19.

Acting airport manager Kim Gard says the construction of the new carpark and terminal building is making good progress and could not come at a better time for the district.

"It has been very much a team effort to get to this point, and obviously the disruption caused by travel restrictions under Covid-19 has seen a reduction in passenger numbers.

"But our current terminal had certainly reached capacity, so we have focused our resources on constructing a really welcoming facility that will meet the needs of our visitors and our community post-Covid.

"We've also taken the opportunity to ensure we're on a stronger economic footing – diversifying income streams and tapping into unused land for cropping for example. Future development of lease sites is another option being explored."

The airport upgrade has a budget of $9.24 million, funded with $3.4m allocated in Taupō District Council's Long Term Plan, a $5m grant from the Crown's Provincial Development Unit, and $870,000 from the Ministry of Transport.

Mark Funnell, of Taupō Tandem Skydiving, says the impact of Covid-19 had been considerable, but Taupō remains a popular skydiving destination with a high number of jumps per annum.

"Prior to Covid, we were doing predominantly tandem jumps, but without international tourists we knew we had to look at something new. Now Taupō is really on the map as the home of sport jumping in New Zealand, which is great because sport jumping is very different to tandem jumping. It involves training, multiple jumps and ultimately solo jumps – as opposed to tandem skydiving which tends to be a one-off, bucket list kind of thing.

"To have developed sport jumping as well as getting back into tandem jumps is going to mean we'll be busier than ever."

In addition to skydiving, Mark operates a commercial aircraft business that serves the agricultural and forestry sectors across the country and works as far away as Raoul Island. They also support firefighting work, including the recent Taupō Cemetery fire.

Taupō's Greenlea Rescue chopper also covers a considerable area, and pilot Nat Every says that while fewer international visitors has seen a reduction in mountain rescue flights, the chopper is still in action nearly every day.

"Because we do everything from roadside or bedside pickups to inter-hospital transfers, emergency beacon searches and police and search and rescue work we're pretty busy.

"In fact, we're one of the busier rescue helicopter bases in the country. We love being here to serve the region and have huge support from the local community, but we also have the support of the airport authority – it's a bustling little community in its own right and one that's great to be a part of."

Alongside these operations are the engineering companies that help to keep all the aircraft that work and play at Taupō Airport in the air.

They are an integral part of the bustling airport community and Argus Aviation manager Greg Newton, which operates two hangars, one in Taupō and one in Motueka, says they are busier than ever.

"We usually have five engineers and a total staff of seven here, and we currently maintain around 40 helicopters, coming from afar afield as Auckland and Wellington. Most of the regular servicing can be done in one or two days, so people generally spend a day or two here and then can get on their way.

"We could use more room and are looking forward to growing with the airport. Taupō is perfectly located, not just for tourism but for all the associated businesses that a busy airport has, and it's great to see that there are plans to make the most of all this potential. The new terminal is going to be great – and it's just the start of what we can do."

Credit: NZHerald.co.nz