Hanan International Airport was named in memory of New Zealand's Minister of Island Affairs, Mr. Ralph Hanan who pushed for the development of an airport on Niue. It was officially opened on the 23rd of November 1971 by his widow Mrs. E Hanan.
However, the first aircraft landed there some 12 months before. On the 20th of October 1970 a NZ Zealand Ministry of Transport Calibration flight Douglas DC-3, ZK-AXS, was the first aircraft to land at Niue. Shortly after arriving back in New Zealand, on the 6th of November 1970, the DC-3 had a heavy landing at Paraparaumu and the aircraft was written off. The then Minister of Island Affairs, Duncan MacIntyre, was able to arrange with the Director of Civil Aviation, Mr L Taylor, for a propellor from the DC-3 to be given to the Niuean Government. It is mounted outside the terminal as a momento of the first aircraft to land at Niue.
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Douglas DC-3 ZK-AXS, the first aircraft to visit Niue. Photo taken at Hokitika
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| The propellor of Douglas DC-3 ZK-AXS, the first aircraft to land in Niue |
On the 5th of August 1971 that first commercial flight to Niue was operated by Polynesian Airlines using a Hawker Siddeley 748 chartered from Fiji Airways.
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| Boarding passes and bag tags are all hand written |
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NZ784 arrives from Auckland in the form of ZK-OJG
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Lining up Runway 10
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Monuina e fenoga Niue
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Have they corrected the mis-spellings of the airport name yet?
ReplyDeleteOn some signs it is Hanan and on others Hannan.