Our Business

Airways mission is to work with our customers to get aircraft and their passengers where they want to go safely and efficiently. We draw on our teamwork and expertise to grow the value of our business.

Business Overview - What does an ANSP do exactly?

In absolute simple terms, Airways is responsible for avoiding aircraft collisions in the air and on the ground. We achieve that through the control of all domestic and international air traffic travelling within NZ’s Flight Information Region (FIR) which totals 30 million square kilometres – one of the largest areas of airspace in the world.

• The NZ domestic FIR covers the entire country and surrounding coastline with both 'controlled' and 'uncontrolled' airspace.
  
  
• The Auckland Oceanic FIR covers 26 million square kilometres of the Pacific and Tasman Oceans, extending from the South Pole to 5 degrees south of the equator. We are responsible for aircraft in this sector flying between 24,500 feet and 46,000 feet.
  
  
• Within the FIRs, there are also areas of uncontrolled airspace, where (light) aircraft are not separated by a controller but receive information and advice to ensure they can conduct their flights safely.

Air Navigation Services (ANS) include:

• air traffic management - air traffic control, aircraft flow management and flight information and alerting services.
  
  
• navigation services - the navigation infrastructure and supporting services used by aircraft to navigate their path.
  
  
• communications - Airways operates a sophisticated communications system throughout the country, which includes everything from satellite coverage, radar, remote sensors, ground-based navigation aids and cell phones.

As well as operating air traffic control towers and equipment, Airways also operates two Radar Centres. The largest is in Christchurch, where around 150 air traffic controllers provide enroute and terminal services to all of NZ’s domestic airspace; the other is the Oceanic Control Centre in Auckland, where around 30 staff provide Oceanic enroute services to aircraft over the South Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea.

Pictured below: A map of Airways' key facilities in New Zealand. Roll your mouse over to view the control tower in that location.

Airways Facilities in New Zealand

1. Whenuapai

Whenuapai Tower

2. Auckland

Auckland Tower

3. Hamilton

Hamilton Tower

4. Tauranga

Tauranga Tower

5. Rotorua

Rotorua Tower

6. Gisborne

Gisborne Tower

7. Napier

Napier Tower

8. Palmerston North

Palmerston North Tower

9. New Plymouth

New Plymouth Tower

10. Ohakea

Ohakea Tower

19. Paraparaumu

Paraparaumu Tower

11. Wellington

Wellington Tower

12. Nelson

Nelson Tower

13. Christchurch

Christchurch Tower

14. Dunedin

Dunedin Tower

15. Invercargill

Invercargill Tower

16. Queenstown

Queenstown Tower

17. Milford

Milford Tower

18. Woodbourne

Woodbourne Tower

 

We are safe

Airways business, our reputation and culture relies on an absolute commitment to safety – it is at the heart of what we do.

Every year we manage more than 1 million air traffic movements in and around New Zealand and our ultimate goal is that every single one of them is safe.

We are considered one of the safest operators in the world; a reputation which is further supported by our proud record of systems availability – we routinely achieve 99.99% across the entire network.