Queenstown Airport has put its expansion plans on hold after a thunderous response from the community.
The airport announced earlier this year the need to expand its noise boundaries to allow for growth, doubling of the number of flights over the next three decades.
But the outcry from Queenstown has been as loud as a jet engine, as it struggles to cope with growth from a tourism and population boom.
Figures released by Queenstown Airport Corporation reveal it received nearly fifteen hundred online survey responses as well as nineteen individual and group submissions during its five-week public consultation.
Chief executive Colin Keel says after considering community and stakeholder feedback QAC will advance its Wanaka Airport master plan work, and consider other key long-term planning initiatives before progressing.
The expansion would enable an average of one hundred and fourteen flights a day by twenty forty five, and more than double annual passenger movements.
But noise from aircraft would increase significantly, affecting three thousand additional homes, four schools and Lakes District Hospital.
