Submission to the MartinJenkins social and economic assessment of alternative airport strategies
After enormous public pressure, the mayor Jim Boult relented. But did he have the last laugh?
Queenstown Airport Corporation was hard driving its dual airport growth strategy and the Queenstown and Wanaka communities were applying huge pressure on the council and Mayor to rethink these plans. With just six weeks before the local body elections and the prospect of losing public support, Mayor Boult called pause.
Mayor Boult unilaterally announced QAC would pause its planning while Council commissioned an independent report to assess alternative airport growth scenarios.
Boult only announced the study’s terms of reference after re-securing the mayoralty. Tellingly, he chose to exclude FlightPlan2050’s proposal from the scenarios to be assessed. So, the fundamental benefit gained from the high-density urbanisation of Frankton could not be considered. In this way, the mayor effectively neutered the value of the assessment.
Even so, the MartinJenkins report identified that a new regional airport offered the best long-term social and economic benefit. We understand that since its receipt, councillors have never formally considered its findings.
Our submission to MartinJenkins comprised a thorough and detailed analysis of six alternative airport scenarios, including the relocation of Queenstown Airport.