Tarras Airport, Central Otago, New Zealand

Indicative Timeframes

Many people have asked, if the airport goes ahead, how long it might be before planes are flying.

We understand that certainty is important to you but delivering an airport Central Otago can be proud of is a long term undertaking. At this early stage, it is difficult to give exact timeframes but our current expectation is that it’s likely to be around ten years before any airport could open.

What are the next steps?

2021 will see us start a large number of pieces of work as we explore the viability of the project, including the design and operational details of a potential airport.

The planning and development process is complex and will include multiple, inter-connected work streams that will require careful sequencing. We don't want to leave any question unanswered and many of the studies below can't be started until we have the output of other investigations.

The diagram below is an indicative outline of the project that gives you some insight into the scale of the work we have ahead of us. It may also help to explain why there isn't just a plan we can roll out at this point in time.

Rest assured we have been getting on with the 'Airspace' work streams so we can answer some of the questions around runway alignment and flight paths next year.

Extract of "Airports: Deadly Neighbors" by Charles R. Miller
About the Author: Mr. Miller was formerly a supervisor with a major airline and is currently a director of the Alliance of Residents Concerning O'Hare (AReCO) working on airport environmental issues.
What kinds of health effects may be occurring to the population in your neighborhood can be seen from a report, dated June 20, 1997 to the Georgetown Crime Prevention and Community Council by the Seattle-King County Department of Public Health. Georgetown is an area of Seattle, and surrounds the King County International Airport (Boeing Field), King County, in turn, surrounds greater Seattle. (The Georgetown Council is a sister organization to AReCO and member of US-CAW (United States Citizens Aviation Watch). When comparing hospitalization rates for Georgetown (Zip Code 98108) to those of King and North King Counties, the following, alarming statistics resulted:
a 57% higher asthma rate
a 28% higher pneumonia/influenza rate
a 26% higher respiratory disease rate
an 83% higher pregnancy complication rate
a 50% higher infant mortality rate
genetic diseases are statistically higher
mortality rates are 48% higher for all causes of death: 57% higher for heart disease, a 36% higher cancer death rate with pneumonia and influenza among the top five leading causes average life expectancy 70.4 years (the same as in many developing nations) compared to Seattle's of 76.0 years.
Did you ever wonder what blows out of a jet airplane?
Here is what you'll find in the air around an airport: Freon 11, Freon 12, Methyl Bromide, Dichloromethane, cis-l,2-Dichloroethylene, 1,1,1-Trichloro-ethane, Carbon Tetrachloride, Benzene, Trichloroethylene, Toluene, Tetrachloroethene, Ethylbenzene, m,p-Xylene, o-Xylene, Styrene, 1,3,5-Trimethyl-benzene, 1,2,4-Trimethylbenzene, o-Dichlorobenzene, Formaldehyde, Acetaldehyde, Acrolein, Acetone, Propinaldehyde, Crotonaldehyde, Isobutylaldehyde, Methyl Ethyl Ketone, Benzaldehyde, Veraldehyde, Hexanaldehyde, Ethyl Alcohol, Acetone, Isopropyl Alcohol, Methyl Ethyl Ketone, Butane,Isopentane, Pentane, Hexane, Butyl Alcohol, Methyl Isobutyl Ketone, n,n-Dimethyl Acetamide, Dimethyl Disulfide, m-Cresol, 4-Ethyl Toulene, n-Heptaldehyde, Octanal, 1,4-Dioxane, Methyl Phenyl Ketone, Vinyl Acetate, Heptane, Phenol, Octane, Anthracene, Dimethylnapthalene (isomers), Flouranthene, 1-methylnaphthalene, 2-methylnaphthalene, Naph-thalene, Phenanthrene, Pyrene , Benzo(a)pyrene, 1-nitropyrene, 1,8-dinitropyrene, 1,3-Butadiene, sulfites, nitrites, nitrogen oxide, nitrogen monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen trioxide, nitric acid, sulfur oxides, sulfur dioxide, sulfuric acid, urea, ammonia, carbon monoxide, ozone, particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5).

Letter from Mike Singleton 27.7.20
Christchurch Airport project leader for Central Otago project

Dear John,
My name is Michael Singleton and I will be leading the Central Otago project for Christchurch Airport.
Our team has passed your correspondence on to me.
I look forward to meeting with you in the way you feel most comfortable, but I'd like to explain why the public meeting you suggest might not work at this stage.

We appreciate news of our acquisition of land at Tarras came as a surprise to many. I must be unapologetic about that. Confidentiality was necessary through the land acquisition stage, otherwise we simply would not have been able to get to the start line. However, having acquired the land we wanted to be open about our project as soon as possible.

We want to introduce ourselves and openly discuss our project with everyone in the community, before we begin any detailed planning. This might not be what you expect from us, but we believe it is the right way to begin. We want to listen, reflect back what we have heard and then factor that into our timing, design and approach. We are not in any hurry for those next steps. Formal consultation processes will happen, but they will happen much later. For now our focus is on conversation.

The advantage of these conversations is to provide us with the chance to hear directly from people, to help inform and shape the best way for us to deliver information as we develop the various pieces we will, of course, share once they are formed.

There are therefore two reasons why we are hesitant about your public meeting. First, we are simply much earlier in the project than you suspect. The documents you identify in your agenda simply have not been created yet. Second, public meetings work well when someone has something to impart, but we are not sure they work well as a way of listening to everyone's views.
Often, only the loudest voices get heard. We'd rather start by listening to everyone in the way they feel comfortable, which is why we're not convinced a public meeting is the right way to start.

What I think might work better is to meet with you, and others, individually, to introduce myself and the project, then take it from there. I'm sure we will have public meetings in the future.
Regards
Michael