Queenstown Airport is backtracking on assurances night flights would not be introduced, according to residents who attended yesterday's open day at the Queenstown Events Centre.
The Queenstown Airport Corporation recently announced plans to increase the noise zones at the Frankton airstrip and extend flight times by two hours a day, from 10pm to midnight.
Yesterday's five-hour information presentation, fronted by noise experts, planning consultants and airport officials, attracted about 80 people, airport chief executive Steve Sanderson said.
He said many of them were concerned about the extra noise but about 20 Frankton residents told him they supported the proposal.
Several of the 20 residents who attended during the first hour yesterday said they felt let down by the airport's determination to go ahead with night flights when previously they had been given assurances such flights would not happen.
McBride St resident Marian Sim said she had received an assurance from the Queenstown Lakes District Council when she bought her house in 2000 that late night flights would not be introduced.
"Now, they are proposing drastic changes. It's absolutely unacceptable."
Mrs Sim said the flight path of the planes was right over her house and, in addition to the noise they generated, she had serious concerns about the safety of night flights.
She was disappointed yesterday's presentation was just one-on-one discussion because she had flown back from Wellington expecting a public discussion and meeting.
"If we don't have public meetings, I'm worried it will just happen,"she said.
Third-generation Wakatipu resident Pat Paulin, of Frankton, said in his view there was no justification for the expansion plans.
He had previously fought airport expansion and felt the proposal was backtracking.
"My real problem is the dictatorial nature of the airport.
To whom are they responsible? What contribution have they made to the local environment?"He felt the additional flights would have huge "ripple effects", bringing more people and resultant impacts on the Wakatipu environment.
Mr Sanderson said the only reaction he had received before yesterday's meeting was an email from eight people expressing their concerns and two more in support.
He expected the earliest any changes could be implemented, if the plan change was passed, would be 18 months away.
Comments on the proposed changes must be lodged with the corporation's planning consultants, Mitchell Partnerships, in Dunedin, by June 18.
