Queenstown Airport

Queenstown has become a "battleground" over the controversial strategic alliance between Queenstown and Auckland Airports, Skyline Enterprises chairman Ken Matthews says.

Contractors working on the vital $5 million runway end safety area (Resa) at Queenstown Airport will raise a cold beer or two on Friday to celebrate reaching the halfway point towards completion by the end of May next year.

The Queenstown Airport Corporation has until January 17 to decide if it will appeal the decision to reject night flights to and from the resort, QAC chief executive Steve Sanderson said this week.

The controversial alliance between the Queenstown and Auckland airport companies was discussed behind closed doors yesterday during a marathon workshop involving the Queenstown Lakes District Council and other interested parties.

Larger stormwater pipe will be incorporated into Queenstown Airport Corporation's runway end safety area (resa) to cater for a "100-year return event" when Frankton Flats was fully developed, the Queenstown Lakes District Council was told on Tuesday.

If the Queenstown Airport Corporation appealed a decision declining consent for night flights to the resort, Frankton residents could consider joining Environment Court proceedings, Frankton Community Association vice-chairman Richard Stringer said yesterday.

It was "too soon to say" if the Queenstown Airport Corporation would appeal a decision by commissioners to recommend the airport not be allowed to cater for flights between 10pm and midnight, QAC chief executive Steve Sanderson said yesterday.

Queenstown Airport Corporation chairman Mark Taylor is unfazed by the announcement a low-cost airline will fly an extra 70,000 passengers from Kuala Lumpur to Christchurch each year, saying yesterday the airline's parent carrier already flies to Queenstown's "strategic alliance" partner, Auckland International Airport.

The launch pad for hundreds of New Zealand and international aviators will celebrate its 40th anniversary with a reunion of past and present members, at Queenstown Airport, on Friday, November 19.

Queenstown property developer and Christchurch Airport chief executive Jim Boult told about 100 aviation delegates to increase airport emergency-response operations, at the New Zealand Airports Conference in Queenstown on Friday.