The Upper Clutha community lost a great deal of confidence in the Queenstown Lakes District Council and Queenstown Airport Company back around 2018, when the QLDC set in place a very long-term lease with QAC to manage and expand Wānaka Airport.
QAC’s concept envisaged expanding Wānaka Airport to ultimately be capable of handling wide-body, long-haul international jet services.
The Wanaka Stakeholders Group, supported by a very large proportion of the Upper Clutha community, took QLDC to the High Court.
The Court found in WSG’s favour and ordered the unwinding of this lease.
Chastened by this huge loss of community confidence, QLDC is now embarking on a "Futures Review" of Wānaka Airport.
They have engaged Egis as an external consultant to interact with the Upper Clutha community and develop a series of options for the future of Wānaka Airport.
This process is under way and being driven at inappropriate haste given the implications and complexities involved.
However, there is one critical element that dramatically affects the future of Wānaka Airport, that has not, so far, been publicly disclosed. Without which, the Egis process will lead to a misleading outcome and will be a pointless waste of time and money.
Queenstown Airport Company needs to disclose its 25-year forecast growth, the consequential constraints and their solution options, particularly where these depend upon Wānaka Airport;
i.e. their 25-year Master Plan.
Without including the implications of this information, Egis’ scenarios will be deeply flawed and the community of the Upper Clutha will, once again, be misled.
The board and executives of well-run airport companies will always have a master plan that looks out 25-plus years.
This usually goes through a review on a five-year cycle and is completely renewed every 10 to 15 years, to reflect the changing market.
However, QAC, heavily supported by QLDC, recently trumpeted a 10-year "Master Plan", that had hardly more than eight years left to run when it was finally adopted.
Reviewing that "Master Plan", it is clear that it is no more than a short to medium-term list of projects, many of which, (like the implementation of runway end safety areas) have been deferred for far too long.
QAC’s 10-year "Master Plan" infers likely busy-hour apron constraints looking out towards 2032 — not very far away.
QAC’s only expansion option for this and other constraints in the medium term is to shift services from that busy hour over to Wānaka. QAC is not being open about this.
The Dual Airport strategy from 2018 that so angered the Upper Clutha community has not gone away.
QAC’s much trumpeted 10-year Master Plan is not an airport Master Plan by any professional or objective measure. It is a carefully developed delaying document.
I would be very surprised if QAC’s directors don’t have 25-year growth forecasts and constraint framework at hand, right now.
Back in 2018, QAC acknowledged that their only pathway to accommodating growth depended on jet services (including international) being shifted to Wānaka Airport. I can’t see that this has changed.
Equally, I would expect that the QLDC (both mayor and executives), as 75% owner, and who benefit from growing dividend streams from QAC, are also absolutely across the long-term issues and the role an expanded Wānaka Airport will play in their solution.
If these forecasts and growth constraints are not disclosed now, the Egis work will be fundamentally flawed and the people of the Upper Clutha will be misled, once again.
If QLDC wishes to engage constructively and regain the confidence of the Upper Clutha community, and is indeed genuinely interested in having an objective assessment of the Wānaka Airport’s future, then it should immediately place the Egis work on hold.
The Egis scenarios cannot be viewed objectively until the QAC Board discloses its 25-year growth forecasts, acknowledges Queenstown Airport constraints and is transparent about promoting Wānaka Airport as a solution.
■ Ben Mitchell is a retired programme director. During his career he lead two international airport expansions.
