SDS Business Case Competition organiser and University of Otago senior marketing lecturer John Guthrie said the coincidence was "kind of spooky".
What is more, the judges for the competition’s final day were airport chief executive Colin Keel and Alastair Porter, the chief executive of Remarkables Park Ltd, a company with a large landholding next to the airport.
"For me, having those two guys there was magic — Alastair’s been a judge for seven of the eight years, and he’s a big fan of the competition."
The four-day competition, which has been held in Queenstown for the past eight years, was contested by teams from six New Zealand universities and six overseas universities, including two from Australia and one each from the United States, Canada, Singapore and Norway.
It culminated on Thursday with the top four teams presenting a case on the airport’s future.
The winner was HEC Montreal, a French-language business school from Canadian province Quebec.
Dr Guthrie said the teams of four had five hours to work on business strategies before presenting them in a "Dragons’ Den" format.
Mr Porter said the HEC Montreal team members were highly articulate despite English being their second language, showed strong analysis and a "realistic and practical strategy".
They defended their positions well when challenged by Mr Porter and Mr Keel.
"It’s an incredibly stimulating afternoon to be exposed to such talented young people.
"You just look at them and you know they will be very successful in business."
