Gisborne Airport is a small regional airport that is located
on the western outskirts of Gisborne, the East Coast of the North Island of New
Zealand. The airport is one of the very few airports in the world that has a
railway line intersecting the runway. The Gisborne airport which covers a land
of 160 hectares has three grass runways and one main runway that is intersected
by the Palmerston North - Gisborne Railway Line. The Wynyard Airport, on
Tasmania's north-western coast, also had a railway crossing on the runway but
declining rail traffic forced the closure of rail traffic in early 2005, and
thus the Wynyard airport rail crossing is no more operational.
At Gisborne, on the other hand, the rail route functions
actively and so does the airport everyday between 6:30 in the morning and 8:30
at night. After that, the runway is sealed off till morning. The railway tracks
splits the runway almost in the middle and very often trains or aircraft are
stopped until one of them moves on. It is a very challenging task for the
airport authorities to manage landing at the intersecting runway along the
operational rail route which has scheduled departures and arrivals itself.
The airport is a major link to enter the small region of
Gisborne and hosts more than 60 domestic flights. More than 150,0000 passengers
fly through this airport each year.
