Palmerston North Airport
Palmerston North Airport
Palmerston North Airport (IATA: PMR, ICAO: NZPM), originally called Milson Aerodrome, is an airport in the Manawat?-Whanganui region of New Zealand, serving Palmerston North and the Central North Island regions. It is located in the suburb of Milson, on the outskirts of Palmerston North, New Zealand, approximately 5.5 km (3.4ml) NE from the central business district of Palmerston North. The airport is 100% owned by the Palmerston North City Council and covers an area of 208ha. The airport is New Zealand's 8th busiest and handled a total of 515,727 passengers in the 2016 financial year. The airport handles around 30 commercial passenger flights per day to and from Auckland, Blenheim, Christchurch and Nelson as well as cargo flights on week nights between Auckland and Christchurch. The airport operates two runways, a sealed 1902m runway and a parallel grass 608m runway, which is utilised for general aviation and training activities by Massey University's School of Aviation. Operating 24/7 with no curfews imposed, the airport has become a freight hub for Parcelair. Common aircraft operating in Palmerston North Airport are ATR72, Bombardier Q300, Boeing 737-400F, Boeing 737-800BCF and Jetstream 31. Diamond DA40 and DA42 training aircraft used by Massey University's School of Aviation are also commonly seen in the airport. In addition to the normal aircraft types, the airport is able to cater for Airbus A320 aircraft.
Location
40.321°S, 175.617°E · 46 m s. n. m. (151 ft)
General data
Runways · 3
Lengths and surfaces from the public OurAirports register; open runways only.
Radio frequencies · 4
Tower
Ground
ATIS (automatic information)
Approach
Reference frequencies for enthusiasts, from OurAirports (community database, public domain), checked on Oct 16, 2026. They may be outdated or incomplete and do not replace the AIP or current charts: not for navigation. In Europe the published frequency may be an 8.33 kHz channel (e.g., 118.505 for 118.500). In MHz.
History
The first airfield on this site was created by the Milson Aerodrome Society in 1931, comprising a grass runway. It was used exclusively for private flights. The first commercial flights began in 1936, operated by Union Airways. During World War II the airport was also used as a military facility. When the National Airways Corporation commenced service to the airport in the 1950s the runway was sealed and a terminal building was constructed; jets started to serve the airport domestically operated by Air New Zealand in 1975, beginning with Boeing 737-200s. A new terminal was constructed in 1992 and a new taxiway was built in 1994. Following the major upgrades of the airport, Freedom Air started regular international flights to Brisbane and Sydney in 1996. Other destinations including Gold Coast, Melbourne and Nadi were added in 1999. A Royal Brunei Airlines Boeing 767-200 landed at the airport on 10 March 2003 due to diversion, making it the first and only 767 to land at the airport. Since Freedom Air ceased operations in 2008 and Oz jet pulling out of a contract before any flights began, no carrier has served the airport with scheduled international flights. In 2014, the airport released its Master plan for 2014–2035. Some proposed ideas include further lengthening the runway, a new taxiway parallel to the runway and an Instrument landing system. Jetstar Airways commenced daily services between Palmerston North and Auckland on 1 February 2016 with their Q300s. These services ended at the end of November 2019. In 2016 due to an increase in need for overnight mail, Freightways upgraded their New Zealand domestic freight fleet from the ageing Convair 580s and 5800s to the bigger and faster Boeing 737-400Fs under the new company name of Parcelair. In 2018 Palmerston North Airport contracted Higgins to reconstruct taxiway bravo and charlie. This work was later re-done due to issues with the pavement surface being uneven. In 2024 Palmerston North Airport began its project to replace the existing terminal with a new, fit for purpose terminal designed to house security screening and enable A320/737 aircraft to operate passenger flights.
Airlines operating here · 2
Other airlines with direct routes
Airlines with current passenger routes from here, according to Wikipedia route tables cross-checked from both ends (October 2026).
Photo: William Stadtwald Demchick · CC BY 3.0 · view original
Data from OurAirports (public domain) · destinations and airlines from Wikipedia route tables (CC BY-SA, 2026), unless another source is given · profile and photo from Wikidata/Wikimedia Commons (CC0 / CC) · summary and history from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
Cite
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This page was last updated on October 15, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, October 15). Palmerston North Airport (PMR). Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/PMR
MLA
“Palmerston North Airport (PMR).” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 15 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airport/PMR. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “Palmerston North Airport (PMR).” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 15, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/PMR.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) Palmerston North Airport (PMR). Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/PMR (Accessed: 16 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_airport_pmr,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{Palmerston North Airport (PMR)}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-15},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/PMR},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/PMR}},
urldate = {2026-10-16},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-16}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/PMR |title=Palmerston North Airport (PMR) |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-15 |access-date=2026-10-16 |language=en}}