QAC

A revised Queenstown Airport Corporation (QAC) constitution has been adopted, without lowering the board's $70 million transaction consultation threshold, sought by two councillors.

Recruitment for two new directors for Queenstown Airport Corporation has begun - one to be appointed the chairman-elect until the board's annual meeting, with the possibility of a fifth director being appointed.

Queenstown Lakes Mayor Vanessa van Uden has cracked down on the Queenstown Airport Corporation, leading a move to change its statement of intent - one of the documents that allowed the QAC board to sell shares secretly to Auckland Airport last year.

The controversial alliance between Queenstown and Auckland airports has cost Queenstown ratepayers more than $560,000 so far, and the final cost in litigation costs and legal fees is still to be determined.

A "prudent" approach has been taken by the Queenstown Airport Corporation in its proposed dividend policy for providing a return to the Queenstown Lakes District Council, which could see the community receive $2.25 million by September and a total of $3.75 million after the next financial year.

Queenstown and Auckland airport chiefs and Queenstown Lakes Mayor Vanessa van Uden have welcomed the withdrawal of legal actions to overturn the controversial share deal between the two airports.

It has taken nine months, but the controversial strategic alliance between Queenstown Airport Corporation and Auckland International Airport Ltd will finally be aired in the High Court at Queenstown this month.

Representatives from all the parties involved in the controversial Queenstown-Auckland airports strategic alliance will address the new Queenstown Lakes District Council on Monday as part of a "workshop", Mayor Vanessa van Uden said yesterday.

Queenstown Airport Corporation has again rejected parts of the Queenstown Lakes District Council's recommendation for airport noise management, citing problems with wording and several matters of clarification.

The controversial airport strategic alliance, an issue that has divided the community for the past five months, looks set to dominate today's Queenstown Lakes District Council meeting, the last for 2010.

Queenstown Airport Corporation has decided not to pursue night flights to and from the resort, chief executive Steve Sanderson said yesterday.

Air New Zealand and the Queenstown Airport Corporation yesterday briefly set aside their legal battles over the controversial strategic alliance with Auckland Airport as Queenstown's $4 million baggage-handling system was opened by Deputy Prime Minister Bill English.

A call by the Queenstown Community Strategic Asset Group for the Queenstown Lakes District Council to stop being a defendant in the forthcoming judicial review over the airport shares deal was "laughable if the matters at hand were not so serious".

Larger stormwater pipe will be incorporated into Queenstown Airport Corporation's runway end safety area (resa) to cater for a "100-year return event" when Frankton Flats was fully developed, the Queenstown Lakes District Council was told on Tuesday.

It was "too soon to say" if the Queenstown Airport Corporation would appeal a decision by commissioners to recommend the airport not be allowed to cater for flights between 10pm and midnight, QAC chief executive Steve Sanderson said yesterday.