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Speaker 1: Good news for the tron also dined and of course

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Speaker 1: the airport's going international again after jetstarstruck a deal to

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Speaker 1: fly Transtasment as of next year. So from Hamilton you're

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Speaker 1: going to have roots to the Gold Coast in Sydney.

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Speaker 1: It's been fourteen years since Hamilton was international. The airport's CEO,

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Speaker 1: Mark Morgan's with us on this, Mark, very good morning

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Speaker 1: to you.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Mike, thanks for having me on board.

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Speaker 1: Not at all. How long has this been in the wings?

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Speaker 2: Look, it's really been twelve months, but intensely since about

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Speaker 2: March this year.

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Speaker 1: Who approaches who look for.

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Speaker 2: These conversations you often get it's generally the airline that

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Speaker 2: make approaches to the airport companies, although we remain sort

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Speaker 2: of alert and open to opportunities. But in this situation, yes,

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Speaker 2: it was. It was just Star.

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Speaker 1: And do you, having been international before, have the capacity

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Speaker 1: I assume you do to become international again.

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Speaker 2: Yet we do. Look, we are all of our aeronautical infrastructure,

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Speaker 2: is there, our runways long enough and we have the

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Speaker 2: northern end of the terminal that was the international terminal

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Speaker 2: and that would be refitted over the next three or

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Speaker 2: four months. So yes, we are ready to go and

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Speaker 2: there are no issues other than standing of course up

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Speaker 2: the border agencies, and that is all under finalization at

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Speaker 2: the moment.

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Speaker 1: Gold Coast and Sydney only, or Gold Coast in Sydney

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Speaker 1: with a be to going somewhere else potentially.

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Speaker 2: Look, I think we would like we see this almost

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Speaker 2: as a beachhead. So that's our approach to this opportunity

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Speaker 2: that it places some credibility back into the mighty Whitecatto,

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Speaker 2: not the tron Mic. And we see this as an

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Speaker 2: opportunity for future activity, whether it be future commercial services.

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Speaker 2: It provides a fail over service for other airports in

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Speaker 2: the event of bad weather or runway closures. So generally

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Speaker 2: it just positions us for opportunities that we would not

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Speaker 2: have been able to consider without this current opportunity.

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Speaker 1: Do you see it as viable in the sense that

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Speaker 1: people from White Katto go presumably to Auckland.

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Speaker 2: That's right. Well, I think there's two aspects. There's exactly

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Speaker 2: that aspect, and we know that getting in and out

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Speaker 2: of Auckland is more challenging than it was. The White

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Speaker 2: Cattow is the fastest growing region Hamilton City, so in

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Speaker 2: the last thirteen or fourteen years the demographics have changed,

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Speaker 2: so that makes it a much more viable proposition. And

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Speaker 2: so we believe that you can't draw a comparison back

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Speaker 2: to thirteen or fourteen years ago. It is a different

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Speaker 2: time and a unique set of circumstances. Now that provides

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Speaker 2: this opportunity.

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Speaker 1: Middle of next year, you go, well, well, that appreciated

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Speaker 1: very much, Mark Morgan, who's the Hamilton Airport CEO. And

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Speaker 1: one assumes a boon time for to who you are,

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Speaker 1: because surely the first thing you do when your Jetstar

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Speaker 1: plane lands and Hamilton is go directly to the train

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Speaker 1: or as I just making that up.

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Speaker 2: For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

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Speaker 2: news talks that'd be from six am weekdays, or full

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Speaker 2: of the podcast on iHeartRadio