New Plymouth Airport serves the city of New Plymouth, and the surrounding region of Taranaki. It is located on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island and is 11 km from the city centre, on State Highway 3 north to Auckland, and 4 km from the outer suburb/satellite town of Bell Block. New Plymouth Airport is serviced by Air New Zealand with daily flights to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Jetstar Airways commenced daily services between New Plymouth and Auckland on 1 February 2016. Jetstar Airways had originally planned to conduct 27 weekly return flights between New Plymouth and Auckland, however only 20 return flights weekly were offered. The Jetstar flights were operated by Qantas Link's Eastern Australia Airlines. Jetstar cancelled those services at the end of November 2019. From 29 September 2017, Originair began direct flights between New Plymouth and Nelson, New Zealand. On 30 September 2018, Originair launched direct flights between New Plymouth and Napier, New Zealand. The airline provided daily flights between the two cities. The company's British Aerospace 18-seat Jetstream aircraft flew the route and the company was adding another Jetstream to its operations to cover contracted charter flights, tours and maintenance coverage. Originair suspended those services at the end of November 2019 until the new terminal opened. Also, the handling company, Swissport, who has carrying out check-in and tarmac services for both Jetstar and Originair, terminated the service at the same time. In terms of passenger numbers, it was the 9th busiest airport in New Zealand in 2016, with 411,661 people flying from or to the airport, a 20.3 percent increase on 2015 statistics. Jetstar's new regional services to New Plymouth were responsible for the significant increase, according to airport management. Hence, more people flew to New Plymouth than other cities with larger populations such as Hamilton and Tauranga. In October 2009, New Plymouth Airport was voted as the best regional airport in New Zealand and in September 2020 the airport was voted 2nd place in the Best Regional Airport poll conducted by Newshub. History The original airport opened in 1933 with the New Plymouth Airport Act. It had five runways, the longest of which was around . During World War II, the airport became the RNZAF Bell Block Airbase. Les Munro, one of the pilots in the Dambusters Raid, soloed here on the Tiger Moth. Post war, the airport returned to civilian use, and