With Parafield being encroached upon by houses, the time is ripe for commerce at that airport to relocate somewhere not too far from the city.

Asked about the possibility of the council luring businesses from Parafield, chief executive officer Andrew Johnson said such “poaching” could happen.

He said Parafield had problems with urban encroachment from the Mawson Lakes development.

That airport’s management knew of the problem “and it presents us with an opportunity to provide them with an alternative that is not too far away”, he said.

“First we have to decide what we want to do with our airport, whether it be housing, industry or commerce out there,” he said,

The master plan relating to the site is hoped to be ready in 12 months and, he said, “will give us the basis to start approaching some of these businesses”.

Meanwhile, the hangar at the airport needs to be improved if any charter flight companies are going to operate from it.

Dr Johnson said companies might provide “fly-in, fly-out” services to the mining industry in the outback.

The runway might also need to be extended to cope with the services.

He agree there was the possibility that people could build houses on the airfield property, but this would depend on the master plan.

Citing the example of Parafield, he said: “Normally they like to keep planes and houses away from each other.”

Port Pirie’s airport could see hundreds of homes with private hangars built under a plan proposed by aviation expert David Eyre.

The “airpark” idea has been backed by airport authorities in centres in the eastern States and could succeed here.