Queenstown Airport will soon be in the same league as Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland, following a decision to reclassify its controlled airspace.
The Civil Aviation Authority publicly released its final decision on the reclassification yesterday, a process it initiated in February last year.
The resort's airport had previously been a Class D airspace, where aircraft had to visually avoid each other because they could not be seen on radar.
In the decision Aeronautical Services manager Sean Rogers said that classification was "no longer appropriate''.
As a Class C airspace, Queenstown Airport will have more air traffic control management and less self-management by pilots, which will improve safety.
The decision had been driven, in part, by the growth in the numbers of larger, predominantly jet, aircraft in and out of Queenstown Airport in recent years.
While Airways - the air traffic control provider - had progressively introduced procedures at the airport over and above requirements for Class D, those procedures did not provide "the level of safety assurance'' Class C airspace would deliver for passengers in the future.
Mr Roger's report said general aviation operators had been consulted and, ultimately, they would not be "unduly impacted'' by the reclassification.
"Taking into account the need to ensure that the growing numbers of jet operations involving regular passenger air transport services at Queenstown are provided with appropriate separation standards, the CAA position is that the change to Class C is appropriate.''
Mr Rogers said the reclassification would occur by November, coinciding with the promulgation date of the visual navigation charts update.
