Kaikohe airport was built in 1942 as a US Marines bomber base during
World War II. The site chosen is a small
plateau, and was deemed suitable as it is large and flat with a solid volcanic foundation. The runway was the longest in Northland and was able to sustain heavy landings by bombers, which made it unique in comparison to other aerodromes in Northland. The
Okaihau Branch Railway wrapped around the airport when the airport was constructed, but the line subsequently closed in 1987. The airport was constructed with one long main runway, and a shorter runway roughly
perpendicular to the main one. After the war the airport was converted to civilian use. On 23 January 1947,
New Zealand National Airways Corporation begun their first commercial passenger air service was from Kaikohe. Flights continued onwards to
Kaitaia in the north and on to
Whangarei and
Auckland in the south. The aircraft flown were
Lockheed Electras and
de Havilland Dominies. On 15 May 1950, NAC introduced the larger
Lockheed Lodestar on its services to Kaikohe and Kaitaia. The Lodestar was unable to use Whangarei's Onerahi Airport and so Kaikohe was connected directly to Auckland. The new service promised some real benefits for Kaikohe including an increased seating capacity from the Dominie's six to fifteen an increase in freight carrying capacity and a reduction in the time of the flight to Auckland from 70 to 45 minutes. This was the actual flying time but the "time-saving" was considerably increased because the Lodestar flew direct to Auckland, consequently the time formerly spent at Whangarei was saved. Introduced at the same time was a Whangarei - Kaikohe feeder service that was operated by Dominies. For a time Kaikohe was linked to 3 destinations, being Auckland, Whangarei and Kaitaia. The Lodestars did not last long on the Northland service for on 2 April 1951
Douglas DC-3s were introduced on the Auckland - Kaikohe - Kaitaia route. The feeder service from Whangarei was discontinued at the same time. The new DC-3 service continued to operate on this timetable until 1964, when it again arrived from Auckland via Whangarei. In 1967, the air service was in jeopardy as it had handled the fewest passengers of any of NAC's destinations. In 1969, it was reported NAC carried only 5000 passengers through Kaikohe, an average of seven in and seven out daily. In 1970, Kaikohe lost its air service with NAC due to this low patronage and the fact the DC3's that were in use being replaced by larger
Fokker Friendships which could not handle the uneven grass runways. In 1975,
Mount Cook Airline begun flying into
Kerikeri Airport and this reduced passenger numbers into Kaikohe Airport as there was now an alternative for people flying into the
Bay of Islands. Air North transferred rights to the route in 1978 to the Auckland Aero Club through their passenger arm, NZ Air Charter. This was discontinued in 1982. In 1983, a new airline Mid North Air begun an air service to Kaikohe. This proved uneconomic and ended the same year. This marked the end of scheduled air services to Kaikohe, as the sealed runway in Kerikeri was much preferred to the grass runway in Kaikohe for airlines flying into the Bay of Islands. The airport became popular with
gliding over the next few years, as a base for local
aerial topdressing aircraft operations, and skydiving. ==Operational information==