The Otago Daily Times reported in November the council had spent $120,136.89 since legal action was taken against it, and the two airports by the Queenstown Community Strategic Asset Group and Air New Zealand.
The two parties lodged separate, but related, applications with the High Court over the alliance, announced in July last year, seeking a judicial review and an injunction to stop Queenstown issuing any further shares to Auckland.
The council engaged Simpson Grierson, of Wellington, to act on its behalf, with a hearing for the matter set down in May.
In early December, the ODT reported that spending on legal fees had ballooned to $183,000.
Council deputy chief executive and finance manager Stewart Burns told the ODT yesterday a report, which will be presented to the council's finance and corporate committee on Tuesday, showed spending over the airports' alliance had reached $320,000 by December 31.
He was unable to provide an updated cost.
Mr Burns said the costs were attributed to "any form of work that's charged by a lawyer", for example, providing advice on various issues, attendance at meetings and the litigation costs of the court action.
The amount did not include the money spent on an independent report by Pricewaterhouse Coopers, commissioned by the council, to examine the alliance, which is expected to be made public next week.
Mr Burns said the money spent on legal fees had blown out the budget for governance activity.
The governance account was used to "support the council and its decision making".
Its budget was $104,000.
"It's hard when your making a budget for this type of expenditure - we base it on what we have spent previously.
"... we have not budgeted for anything of this [nature]."
Mr Burns said the budget was now basically $320,000 over and the council would need to look at other budgets which were under spent to try and "match them off".
It would not be increasing the legal fees budgets during the 2011-12 annual plan process, he said.
"The issue should be sorted out [by then], but the $320,000 is obviously going to increase before that."
The PWC report would also be charged to the governance account, but because there was no specific budget for that spending, it too would have to be matched from elsewhere.
Council corporate and regulatory services general manager Roger Taylor could not be reached for comment yesterday, nor could Strategic Asset Group spokesman John Martin.
However, former mayor Warren Cooper said it appeared common sense was a "rare commodity".
"It's a wonderful Christmas bonus for the legal profession and to learn that the Pricewaterhouse Coopers bill is yet to come - honestly, this is reaching astronomical proportions.
"I'm bewildered.
"There was no need to go to Pricewaterhouse ... they [the council] simply had to take the advice of the more successful people around this district ... to disregard their advice is, to me, quite offensive.
