Dunedin Airport operations manager Stu Casey said welcoming the new Rosenbauer Panther fire truck to the site made for "a great day" yesterday.
The new truck would be replacing old vehicles and had room for about 9000 litres of water, which could be expended in about 60 seconds, he said.
It also had space for about 1200 litres of foam and 250kg of dry powder.
Powered by a 16-litre 700kW Volvo engine running to a Euro-5 emission standard, the new appliance was 11.5m long and 3.6m wide.
The appliance is a smaller variant of the Panther line of appliances, dubbed the "baby panther", but it is too big to fit inside the airport fire station.
As a result the station was "going through a bit of a redevelopment to ensure the new engine could be kept inside it, Mr Casey said.
The station would be made 4.5m wider at the front and about 3m higher.
The station redevelopment would cost about $2 million, Mr Casey said.
The appliance had been dubbed "Gordie" following a competition run by a local radio station.
The moniker was suggested by a former worker at the airport, in memory of the late Gordon McDonald, who worked in the airport’s customer service team for about 12 years.
"He was a great guy ... He was just so relaxed.
"He had such a way with people in the terminal, he could talk to anybody from all walks of life," Mr Casey said.
Rosenbauer Australia managing director Arthur Weimar said one of the advantages of the smaller Panther variant was that it was road legal and had good off-road capability, so it had the ability to fight fires in the community if called upon.
A second truck would be completed in April next year and delivered to the airport in July, Mr Casey said.
Similar firefighting appliances have also been supplied to Invercargill, Nelson and Queenstown airports this week.
