I saw the Prime Minister speak to a business audience last night - the Business North Harbour Association had a 'meet the prime minister' evening.

And it was Bill English's voter base. Corporates. SMEs. High net-worth individuals.

And one of the issues English was pushed on was whether the country would benefit by developing a second airport in Auckland - and more directly, a second airport on the North Shore. The military airport Whenuapai would be ideal, said the audience.

Anyone who's flown in or out of Auckland will know it's time-consuming, and more time-consuming than it needs to be. And although there's a business case to develop a light-rail train link from the airport to the city, it is truly light years away.

30 years away. If we cracked on with it now, it would almost be 2050 before it's in place. And that's madness.

And we're in the midst of a tourism boom and it's going to escalate, and the only way we can get people into the city is on the roads. The already clogged roads.

From a business perspective, many argued last night that it was futile to fly people into south Auckland and then ask them to trek to the other side of the city. The whole process was one enormous headache, they said. And given the size of north shore city now and it's commercial sector, it's a valid point.

This has been raised before, ATEED - Auckland's tourism events and economy development body commissioned a report on the commercial use of Whenuapai, but it brought the nimbys out.

Not in my backyard, they said. Locals didn't want to see an increase in air-traffic above Whenupai.

But why couldn't you model it on what they do on the Kapiti Coast?

The airport at Paraparaumu offers a small service - flights in and out of Auckland and to and from the upper South Island as well.

And crucially it means you're not trekking to and from Kapiti from Wellington.

I'm pretty sure Whenuapai could offer something similar to and from our major cities - perhaps linking up with Wellington and Christchurch.

The Prime Minister wasn't adverse to it. He said you'd need to see the business case, but it's clearly not on the government's to do list. There is already a lot to do in Auckland in terms of its transport headaches. A second harbour crossing. Light rail. Roading. And to what degree should central government fund that? Those issues are already sitting on Bill English's desk.

But if you want the country's largest city and the powerhouse of the economy to work better, then a second airport offering key domestic flights in and out of North Harbour is surely worth looking at.

Would you use it?