At the Frankton Community Association annual meeting at Queenstown Airport on Wednesday night, Scott Paterson told about 60 people gathered the company's aspiration was "to achieve evening flights" but that could be 12 months or five years away.
However, there was a lengthy process by airlines, the Civil Aviation Authority, Australian aviation authority Casa and the airport before evening flights became a reality.
"Merely because we can fly here in the daylight, in cloud, isn't going to be enough.
"As an airport, we're trying to determine ... what we need to do, what needs to happen here - particularly from an infrastructure point of view - to be able to achieve flights after [dark]."
While Queenstown Airport's operating hours were 6am to 10pm, "we are not able to fly after dark".
"There's basically daylight flying only. In winter, it's an issue."
Mr Paterson said the last flight to land was at 5pm, with the last departing flight before that.
"That puts real pressure on international flights that arrive here. [They] have to turn themselves around and get out of here before that cut off, or that aeroplane is parked up here overnight."
Qantas was keen for a later departure time, while Air New Zealand was "very interested" in introducing a 7pm flight from Auckland and arriving in Queenstown about 8.30pm or 9pm on a Thursday or Friday.
For evening flights to be achieved, the airlines had to build a safety case, which had to be accepted by both the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority and Casa, before Queenstown Airport would spend any money on required infrastructure.
"From a safety perspective, there are a number of boxes to be ticked before we are across that.
"Right now, we are very much in the investigation phase - How much money? On what? Over what timeline? Does it make sense?"
However, some Frankton residents were critical of the airport at the meeting, concerned it would "kill the goose that laid the golden egg".
One woman said while she was "all for progress", Queenstown was becoming accessible "for a lot of people with no money".
"Skifields: Do we really want to open the town up for night flying to get people to the skifields for the weekend, who are just going to go out in town and cause more problems with alcohol?"
Another man said there was "no fudging the issue".
"We just don't want these planes coming in late at night and disturbing our peace. Get the message, will you?"
Mr Paterson told the Otago Daily Times yesterday technically the airport could "ignore everybody".
"We could ... say 'we've got the right [to land up until 10pm], here we go', but that wouldn't be the right thing to do.
"There's been a lot of fear out there that the skies are going to be really opened up, which they are ... and that it's all going to be at night and we're going to have one plane after another, with this huge procession of planes [landing].
"I don't see that. In fact, no-one's even talking to us on that kind of scale."
