Queenstown Airport shareholders have agreed to appoint board member Murray Valentine as interim chairman of the airport corporation board.
Representatives of the Queenstown Lakes District Council, Auckland International Airport Ltd and remaining airport corporation board members James Hadley, Allison Gerry and Mr Valentine met for a special general meeting before a scheduled board meeting at the airport yesterday.
Mr Valentine was guarded when asked to comment about his new role and what it involved.
"It was a decision of the Queenstown council and it's about continuity, keeping staff focused and business as usual, really," Mr Valentine said.
His temporary appointment followed the resignation of chairman Mark Taylor on April 13, after the council resolved to remove him from the board if he did not agree to depart within seven days.
The interim chairmanship was not a role he sought, Mr Valentine said.
His first job was chairing the board meeting at the airport yesterday.
When asked what he hoped to achieve as interim chairman, Mr Valentine said it was to "get ourselves through the present position and make Queenstown Airport the best airport in New Zealand".
"I'm not going to say any more. I'm the interim chairman, I'm not a spokesman, I'm nothing else but an interim chairman, and that's what I'll do."
Mr Valentine will act as interim chairman until the board's annual meeting at the end of September.
When asked if he was interested in being chairman for a longer term, Mr Valentine said: "I'll make up my mind on that in due course."
When asked what his tasks were this week as interim chairman, he said: "That's for me to decide ... the business is running very well."
Mr Valentine, a businessman and chartered accountant, became a director of the airport corporation in 2006.
The interim chairmanship announcement was the latest chapter in a saga which began when the corporation created and sold a 24.99% new shareholding to Auckland for $27.7 million last July.
Air New Zealand and the self-appointed strategic asset group, which was formed soon after the airport companies announced their "strategic alliance", filed independent, but related, applications in the High Court in August.
The court will sit in Queenstown next month to preside over a judicial review of the alliance.
Queenstown Community Strategic Asset Group spokesman John Martin said, when contacted yesterday, Mr Valentine's interim appointment was "a positive development", but declined further comment.
Mr Taylor and Queenstown Lakes Mayor Vanessa van Uden were unavailable yesterday.
