Oamaru Airport

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Oamaru Airport (IATA: OAM, ICAO: NZOU) is an airport located 20 km north of Oamaru just alongside of state highway 1, at Hilderthorpe in the North Otago region and the Waitaki District of New Zealand.

On 10 December 1960 South Pacific Airlines of New Zealand commenced a Douglas DC-3 service linking Oamaru north to Timaru and Christchurch and south to Alexandra and Invercargill. Later a stop in Gore was added. These flights ended on 28 February 1966. Later that day Mount Cook Airline (MCA) took over also using DC-3 aircraft, serving Timaru and Christchurch.

In October 1968 Mount Cook Airline began using the 52 seater HS-748 aircraft into Oamaru. A new sealed runway at the Oamaru Airport was passed as fully operational in March 1975.

Regular scheduled services were withdrawn in 1989. In 2005 the Waitaki District Council decided to reseal the main runway.

When scheduled services resumed in 2006 and the first BAe Jetstream 32EP arrived from Christchurch (operated by Air National on behalf of Eagle Airways) a crowd of approximately 500 people were present to view its landing. The aircraft operating the inaugural service was renamed The Spirit of Waitaki in honour of the reintroduction of services to Oamaru. However, regular commercial flights to Oamaru were again withdrawn on 1 January 2010.

On 4 June 2014, Mainland Air commences their short lived scheduled flights to Christchurch which ended in August on the same year.

The North Otago Aero Club has been operating from the Oamaru Airport since 1956, and offers charter flights to Dunedin, Christchurch and Queenstown International Airports. In addition its Air Transport license allows flights to any airport in New Zealand. The main drawback with the club's service is that the small aircraft can only take two passengers.

The airport resides at an elevation of 99 feet (30 m) above mean sea level. It has one runway designated 18/36 with asphalt surface measuring 4,210 feet (1,283 m) in length. There are also 2 grass surface runways located in the vicinity of the Oamaru Airport.