Queenstown Airport's growing strategic value has been backed by independent research which reveals it pumps $274 million into the Queenstown Lakes District's domestic and international tourism, business travel and imports and exports.
Research by Market Economics Ltd has found the flow-on benefits of Queenstown Airport to the economy, in terms of purchases and salaries, is $6.5 million a year and supports 98 jobs.
The total value of the supply firms at the airport and within its environs is $99 million annually.
The gross domestic product of the Queenstown Lakes district is $1.1 billion.
Market Economics Ltd examined the economic and social contribution of 33 New Zealand airports. It found airports contributed $200 million directly to gross domestic product, but increased to $40 billion when taking into account the flow of benefits into communities.
More than 12,645 people are directly employed by airports and in air transportation, while about 78,810 work within airport environs.
However, once the flow-on benefits into other industries are taken into account, the overall number of jobs generated is estimated at more than 710,000.
''Airports are large businesses in their own right, but the main contribution they make is through the connections they offer,'' New Zealand Airports Association chief executive Kevin Ward, of Wellington, said.
''This research clearly identifies, for the first time, the very significant contribution that airports are making to the New Zealand economy.''
An interim dividend of 6c a share ($1 million) was paid by the Queenstown Airport Corporation on January 31 this year.
Corporation directors on August 16 this year declared a final fully imputed dividend of 16c a share ($2.6 million) for the year ending June 30.
Asked to comment on the research, Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) chief executive Adam Feeley said the airport was ''obviously an incredibly important piece of infrastructure for the district in that 60% of our economy is tourism and of the 2.2 million tourists, national or international, to the district, about half of them come via the airport.
''It also therefore follows that it is a very valuable strategic asset to the council that goes well beyond the dividend it provides to the ratepayers.''
Mr Feeley said the council, as shareholders, help set the statement of intent for the board which they then implemented through management.
''Obviously financial growth for the airport is fundamental to that. It is, after all, a trading company for the council.
''However, it is its strategic importance as the main `port of entry' to the district for facilitating economic growth that is as important and the reason for QLDC owning it.''
Queenstown Airport chief executive Scott Paterson said there was no doubt the airport was an important part of the Lakes District's tourism success story.
''The research initiated by New Zealand Airports has allowed to quantify our direct contribution to the region and also shows the flow-on benefits are huge and shared by many,'' Mr Paterson said.
Asked if the council had any plans to sell off more airport shares to Auckland airport, or any other party, Queenstown Lakes Mayor Vanessa van Uden said at the time of the original sale of 24.99% of the shares to Auckland International Airport, it was made clear a minority, or no shareholding, ''would not be in the best interests of the council, or the ratepayers''.
