Otago Daily Times, 26.05.21

Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson says the government will not step into Christchurch International Airport Limited’s Tarras International Airport decision-making process.

We Love Wakatipu Inc submitted to the national infrastructure plan that airport infrastructure should come under a national aviation body because the costs, land use, climate change and other impacts should not be decided by competing local authorities.

But he did say the project would need resource consent, a public process where effects on both local community and environment would be tested.

A correction was put in the ODT the following day, stating the asset value of the Christchurch International Airport is $1.8 billion and CIAL did pay a dividend, of $20 million, in the pandemic-afflicted 2020 financial year. 

QAC didn’t pay any dividend in 2020 and none is expected this year.