Airfield lighting outages are an “ongoing concern” at Oamaru Airport and are costing $1500 a month to fix on average.

And replacing the entire lighting system in the long term could cost $800,000.

More than a third of incident reports at the airport in recent months are linked to lighting failures and there has been a seasonal increase going into  winter, airport manager Matthew Sisson’s  report, presented to Waitaki District councillors this week, states.

Mr Sisson told elected representatives on Monday it was “cheaper” to keep fixing the lights at the moment.

But he said there could be an “underlying” issue with the underground cabling, some parts of which were half a century old.

The frequency of outages, particularly where failures were repeatedly happening in the same locations, was an “ongoing concern”.

“The greatest operational risk is a partial system failure caused by the failure of an individual cable.

“While temporary repairs could likely be implemented relatively quickly to restore
service, these would not address the underlying condition of the ageing infrastructure.

“One possible cause of the recurring failures is water ingress into the underground cables.

“However, accurately locating and confirming this type of fault would be extremely difficult without extensive investigation.”

A complete upgrade, costing $800,000, was floated in the council’s long-term plan for the 2027/28 financial year and considered the “most reliable” long-term solution.

This figure was independent of the ongoing $1500 in costs per month of inspections and repairs, Mr Sisson said following queries in the council chamber.

In the interim, airport management would continue monitoring and carrying out repairs where necessary.

Councillor Sven Thelning said he had been doing a bit of night flying with the North Otago Aero Club and was “quite aware of the fragility of the system”.

Councillors also heard there was an “active” investigation under way by the Civil Aviation Authority into a “double runway incursion incident” at the airport.

“As the incident remains under active investigation, it would be inappropriate to provide detailed commentary at this stage.”

A full report would be provided to the committee once investigations were complete.

Mr Sisson separately suggested the installation of surveillance cameras at key locations around the site.

There was a need for “improved visibility” of day-to-day operations across the aerodrome, he said.

The airport was an “unattended aerodrome” with “limited” oversight of operational activities when management was not present.

The use of surveillance cameras was common at aerodromes of a similar scale.

“Subject to appropriate privacy, data-storage and access controls, a camera system would provide a relatively simple and cost-effective way to strengthen operational oversight and improve the availability of reliable information following an incident or reported occurrence.”

Mr Sisson said the cost of  five cameras on the top of the control tower was a “very reasonable” price.

charley-kai.john@oamarumail.co.nz