Mechanics Bay landed in Mechanics Bay, which was the centre of international aviation for New Zealand until the 1950s. Even after the construction of Auckland International Airport at Mangere in the 1960s, Mechanics Bay was still used by flying boats to the Pacific Islands, e.g. for the "Coral Route" to Fiji. From 1962 to 1989, Mechanics Bay was home to first Tourist Air Travel, then Mount Cook Airline then Sea Bee Air operating a fleet of Grumman Goose, Grumman Widgeon and Grumman Turbo Goose amphibian aircraft for regular scheduled passenger and freight services to the islands of the Hauraki Gulf (particularly Great
Hamilton Airport (New Zealand) Hamilton Airport (New Zealand) Hamilton Airport is an airport located 14 kilometres south of the city of Hamilton in the Waikato region, in New Zealand. It is sited at Rukuhia, which was the name of the Royal New Zealand Air Force base on that site during World War II. In the year to 30 June 2011 the airport had 316,000 domestic and 46,000 international passengers. Hamilton is the tenth-busiest airport in New Zealand by passenger traffic. The airport is on land owned by Samuel Steele (brother of William Steele, who brought militia-settlers from Sydney to Hamilton in 1864) from about