Thanks to Jarden Svensson for these pics of the Mount Cook airports. Once upon a time both these airports received scheduled air services.
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| Mount Cook airport had scheduled services using Mount Cook Airlines' Douglas DC-3s, Hawker Siddeley 748s, DHC Twin Otters (usually used for backup or small loads), Fokker Friendships and ATR 72s operating through here. |
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| Glentanner Airport had scheduled services using Newmans Air DHC Dash 7s and Ansett Newmans/Ansett New Zealand DHC Dash 8s operating through here. For those not familiar with Glentanner the sealed runway is at the far end of the grass strip running at 90 degrees to it |
Thanks again Jarden... I'm always looking for content to keep the interest up on the blog.
I flew from Christchurch to Mount Cook twice during the era of regular airline flights through there; and also flew from Christchurch to Queenstown once on a flight which called in at Mount Cook. On all three occasions, it was in Mount Cook Airlines' HS748s. On a clear day, that flight from Christchurch to Mount Cook would have probably been one of the most spectacular scheduled airline flights in the world. They used to take off and fly due west across the Canterbury Plains, over foothills & ranges, across the great river valleys, then into the heart of the Southern Alps. The Tasman Saddle would appear on the left side of the airliner and they would turn to port and cross the saddle, then descend down the Tasman Valley above the mighty Tasman Glacier between the Malte Brun range on one side and the main Southern Alps range on the other. Malte Brun would slip past on the left, and Mount Tasman and Aoraki Mount Cook on the right, with all of them towering above the airliner. Then they would land at Mount Cook Airport and you'd disembark the airliner into the most amazing scenic vista of mountains all around. And I used to love the way they had an open cockpit door policty, with passengers actually encouraged to visit the cockpit, two at a time, during the flight right up until the seatbelt signs went on during the final approach to Mount Cook Airport. I feel really privileged to have experienced that flight on three separate occasions.
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