A full emergency was declared at Tauranga Airport this morning, when a light aircraft reported its landing gear would not go down.

The single person on board is believed to have made a mayday call which triggered the response from police, fire and ambulance.

The landing gear worked, and the single person on board landed safely, says NZ Fire Service northern communications centre shift manager Paul Radden.

The aircraft is believed to be a Tecnam P2002JR, a microlight aircraft with retractable landing gear.

A microlight aircraft similar to the one pictured declared an emergency at Tauranga Airport this morning. Supplied photo.

An engineer/flight instructor spoke with the pilot while the aircraft was still in the air, says Tauranga City council communications manager Aimee Driscoll.

'The pair managed to get 'three greens”, meaning the landing gear came down and locked successfully.”

Two airport fire trucks and one NZFS truck were waiting at the scene.

The aircraft landed safely with no reported injury to the pilot.

There were no passengers on board.