Christchurch Airport's Tarras farmland can support an international airport, an investigation has found.
The sign for Otago town Tarras, where land has been bought for a potential airport. Photo: RNZ / Timothy Brown
Christchurch Airport has today released its preliminary aeronautical assessment of its site in the small Central Otago settlement.
It has bought up 750 hectares of farmland in Tarras - home to just a couple hundred people - in the hopes of one day building an international capable airport.
Tarras is about 30 kilometres from nearby Cromwell and 90 kilometres from Queenstown.
The proposal was met with strong push back from the community.
Christchurch Airport's assessment was undertaken with aviation consultancy Airbiz and the support of technical specialists.
The key finding showed the site was able to support an airfield with a single runway of at least 2.2 kilometres.
Project Director Michael Singleton said assessment released today was just a small step forward.
"The findings are encouraging but they're not final. This assessment has given us the confidence to undertake the next stage of more detailed analysis to determine a preferred single runway alignment," he said.
The assessment identified two potential runway alignments - one aligning to the Lindis Valley and Lake Dunstan, the other to the Hawea Valley and Lake Dunstan.
"This initial assessment shows both options enable safe and efficient operation of various aircraft types, including new generation narrow and widebody jets, freight, turboprop and small passenger aircraft," Singleton said.
The site could even allow a longer runway of up to 3 kilometres, but more analysis was needed to confirm it.
"A single 2.2km runway would be able to serve all of New Zealand's domestic routes and some short-haul international destinations such as Australia and parts of the Pacific," Singleton said.
"In general, a longer runway creates more opportunity for the region it serves because it enables businesses and people to connect with more destinations. Our job is to think long-term and identify what opportunities this site could deliver well into the future."
The preliminary assessment also found both alignments would enable aircraft to connect to existing flight paths and had similar emissions profiles.
Much work remained to be done, such as in-depth noise impact assessment and validating the preliminary findings which was expected to take until 2023.
A group of Tarras residents said they still had serious concerns about any proposed airport in the town.
Sustainable Tarras chairperson Chris Goddard said he and others in the community wanted to know the business case behind the proposal.
However, a fourth generation Tarras farmer said the airport may be the catalyst for growth the small settlement needs.
Jonny Trevathan still farms the land his great-grandfather settled. He said at present many young parents can't find work in the town.
"They have to travel out of Tarras to work, and because of that they're taking their kids to school out of Tarras. So we could get the school back to what it used to be, you know it used to have 60 pupils when my father is there."
An airport might be the kick-start the town needs, Trevathan said.