Business divided on airport expansion - interim survey results

Sep 04, 2019

The Crux Ultimate Airport Survey has now been completed by over 730 respondents in just two days - with 73% giving concerns about the environment, over tourism, noise and congestion as reasons for opposing the "demand driven" business model proposed by the Queenstown Airport Corporation.

A massive 45% of respondents so far are business owners or self employed - 8% of all respondents are business owners from within the tourism sector.

The survey gives a number of different growth options - from zero to "demand driven" - for both Wanaka and Queenstown airports.

Here's a summary of the key findings so far. The survey will remain open until next Thursday, September 12.

Wanaka - 53% support no expansion or just regional turbo-prop flights. Only 6% support the full "demand driven" scenario.
Queenstown - 45% support no expansion or sticking to existing noise boundaries. Only 6% support the full "demand driven" model.
Of those supporting some degree of expansion - 12% say its for a strong economy, 1% that more tourists are needed and 8% the need for convenient air travel.
71% said that information provided so far from QLDC and QAC was either Poor (31%) or Very Poor (40%)
Only 12% said they had confidence in the proposed further consultation planned by QAC and QLDC. 31% said they were not sure and needed to know more about the planned consultation process.