AOPA members – please help us save Wanaka Airport

You are probably visiting this page because of the article featuring Shaun Gilbertson in your quarterly magazine.

You may not be aware, but Wanaka Airport is under significant threat.

What’s happening?

Queenstown Airport Corporation are moving fast towards developing Wanaka Airport into a jet-capable airport. They are planning on spending $400 million, and the airport will be twice the size of Queenstown.

Already, GA pilots based at Wanaka are having ground rents pushed up significantly, and there is huge uncertainty about the future. If you look at what has happened in Queenstown over recent years, you’ll know that this could all have a significant impact on GA in Wanaka.

There are also massive and irreversible risks to Wanaka as a community and a destination.

If you want to find out more, have a look at the menu “The Detail” above, or start here.

What can AOPA members do?

In time, there will be ways you can help. But for now, the one thing we’d ask you do is sign up to the membership of Wanaka Stakeholders Group – the crowd behind the Protect Wanaka Campaign. Shaun Gilbertson is one of the core members of this team, and has been since the outset.

Please support your fellow pilots, and help keep Wanaka Airport as a great place for GA activity for all of us!