Former Queenstown
Airport Corporation chairman Mark Taylor's forced resignation
was "a great loss for the board, Queenstown Airport and the
community", the remaining three directors said in a statement
yesterday.
Work has begun on $800,000 of extensions to Queenstown
Airport's international arrivals hall and the airport's
baggage claim area, ahead of a more comprehensive extension
that is expected to begin towards the end of this year.
Air New Zealand, which has been critical of the proposed
strategic alliance between Queenstown and Auckland airports,
intends forging ahead with a request for a High Court
judicial review of the process.
More than $60,000 has been spent by the Queenstown Lakes
District Council in legal fees and litigation costs between
January 1 and February 28 over the controversial strategic
alliance between Queenstown and Auckland Airports.
Auckland International Airport Ltd and the Queenstown Airport
Corporation have cancelled the subscription agreement by
which Auckland could increase its shareholding in Queenstown
Airport.
Queenstown Chamber of Commerce chairman Alistair Porter says
scrapping "misconceived" plans to sell a greater slice of
Queenstown Airport shares to Auckland Airport will be good
for the Queenstown community.
It is hoped a visit
by Chinese airline and government officials, travel
wholesalers and media to Queenstown next month will translate
quickly into more high-spending Asian visitors to the Lakes
district.
The long-awaited PricewaterhouseCoopers report into the
controversial strategic alliance between Queenstown and
Auckland Airports is due to be released.
The Queenstown Airport Corporation has told Frankton Golf
Course executives the airport will not require any of its
land for airport purposes in the "medium term" - defined as
about 10 years.
The public release of the Price-waterhouseCoopers report on
the strategic alliance between Queenstown and Auckland
airports has been delayed because of last week's Christchurch
earthquake.
