And, after the loss of four planes and a two-year wait to build more hangar space at the Oamaru Airport, the Waitaki District Council now says there is a "willingness" to progress plans by the New Zealand Airline Academy (NZAA).
The council discussed the NZAA’s request for permission to build another hangar in a public excluded briefing this week.
While the burgeoning academy has been waiting for the green light, it has been storing up to half of its microlight fleet outdoors — with three wrecked in a freak wind change in North Otago 10 days ago which ripped the light planes from their ground moorings.
Academy chief executive Jonathan Manuel said they can only accommodate 12 planes at a time in the current hangar.
In the past few years the academy’s arrival at Oamaru has seen huge growth and the rural aerodrome is now the fifth-busiest airport in New Zealand.
A report on the academy’s plans for expansion will now be tabled at the council next Tuesday.
Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher said yesterday there was a "willingness" during the briefing for NZAA to progress things for what is a valued company in the district.
"It certainly goes some way towards agreeing to their requests so I just need to have a look to see does it go far enough."
Decisions made at the meeting on Tuesday "may or may not be in accordance" with the paper to be tabled.
Last week, Mr Manuel said the council had long been aware of their situation and he hoped they could make progress with building a hangar for their expanding fleet.
Mr Kircher said the growth of NZAA had been impressive.
"They’ve grown ahead of and faster than expectations, so having more hangar space, they’ll be able to increase the number of aircraft and students they have."
At the same time, the council is trying to ensure its airport is as "cost neutral as possible".
Mr Kircher suggested a council controlled property company might be a good fit to manage the airport on a more commercial basis.
However that was a separate discussion to be had.
At present the council-owned airport consists of 253ha.
Of that 216ha is leased to adjoining dairy farms.
"That certainly helps out with revenue," he said.
The council adopted its Oamaru Airport master plan 18 months ago with a view to more commercial aviation returns.
The adopted master plan foresees a low traffic general aviation hub where increased revenue could be focused on the construction of private hangars.
Mr Kircher there was a bit more work to be done on that.
"Helping an existing business grow is a very important part of any economic development strategy and should come before even trying to attract new business," he said.
