Queenstown Airport Corporation chief executive Steve Sanderson is confident the year-long dispute over airport noise will be settled by the end of the week, as involved parties head back to the Environment Court today.
The corporation submitted a proposal to the Queenstown Lakes District Council to extend its air noise boundary a year ago, and this week the case is being heard, before Judge Jan Borthwick.
The QAC had been in talks with neighbouring submitters Remarkables Park Ltd, Shotover Park Ltd, the Minister of Education and Wakatipu Residents Against Airport Noise (WRAAN) for the past few weeks trying to reach a compromise.
Mr Sanderson yesterday expected the issue would be resolved before the end of the week.
"We are confident there will be a settlement."
Mr Sanderson had spoken with representatives of WRAAN, which had accepted a proposal the QAC offer to pay 75% of noise insulation costs for existing dwellings within the 60 decibel (dBA) noise boundary area.
WRAAN lawyer Revell Buckham could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Mr Sanderson said the QAC was seeking to extend the 58dBA sound insulation boundary to 60dBA, which would see the airport through to 2037, according to passenger and plane number forecasts.
The airport's "master plan", written in 2009, predicted 2 million passengers would fly in and out of the airport a year by 2037 and a further 2 million people would visit the airport. He said this number had not changed in three years and the new noise boundary would suffice for those passenger numbers.
"The current noise boundaries are reaching their full potential. They have a life out to 2037."
The airport's original submission to the council in January last year requested night flights between 10pm and midnight but this proposal has since been dropped.
"We are not pursuing that one," Mr Sanderson said.
