However, chief executive Scott Paterson told the Otago Daily Times this week it was a "chicken-and-egg" matter, requiring airlines to indicate it was something they required.
"You [Wanaka] are on the cusp of going ... to a 139 certification."
Part 139 of the Civil Aviation Authority rules specifies the requirements for aerodromes taking aircraft with more than 30 passengers.
The list in the South Island now includes Timaru, Te Anau/Manapouri, Dunedin, Christchurch, Marlborough, Nelson, Westport, Invercargill, Hokitika and Queenstown, but not Wanaka.
Mr Paterson said gaining 139 certification would take the airport to "a whole new level" but would also add additional operating costs, such as fire-rescue capability.
The question for the authority, he said, was whether it recovered those costs from the airlines or "do we, as a community, just accept it?"
Mr Paterson was responding to inquiries by the ODT over the reasons why an ATR flight was not diverted to Wanaka last week, when Queenstown Airport airport was affected by a snow storm.
Although the weather was fine at Wanaka, the ATR passengers were diverted to Dunedin and then bused to Queenstown.
ATRs have landed at Wanaka for one-off events in the past.
An Air New Zealand spokeswoman said this week the reason Wanaka Airport was not used was because it did not have CAA certification to accept ATR-72 aircraft flight operations on a "scheduled basis".
"Special permission has been sought on a one-off basis previously for events such as [Warbirds] Over Wanaka, but this process takes some time and is obviously not practical at short notice during a weather disrupt."
It is not known how many of the ATR passengers were bound for Wanaka but Wanaka Chamber of Commerce President Leigh Stock believed the question about Wanaka Airport's status needed to be asked.
"I've been on flights that have been diverted to Invercargill and you think, 'Well, we've got a perfectly good airport here that is capable of taking the aircraft'.
"Air New Zealand fly into this airport. Why haven't they done it?"
Mr Paterson was sceptical about the practicality of an arrangement that would have ATRs diverted to Wanaka and jet aircraft to Dunedin or elsewhere.
"I just don't see that working.
"That's the challenge. If we had a regular ATR service in Wanaka I think that would be a different prospect."
Wanaka Community Board chairman Lyall Cocks said he believed there was no reason why planes could not divert to Wanaka but it was the airlines' choice.
Mr Cocks said the airport was "part-way certified" when an airline called Fly Direct talked about, but did not proceed with, plans for regular scheduled flights to Wanaka in 2010.
"Most of the bookwork and the manuals we had to put in place has been done."
