National Business Review, 14 January 2022

Both Queenstown Airport Corporation and Auckland International Airport Ltd have employed new CEOs over recent months. They bring very different perspectives to the helm of the two companies running Queenstown Airport.

Recent posts have covered QAC CEO Glen Sowry’s change in QAC’s tack. In this article – published in National Business Review and the Otago Daily Times – FlightPlan2050 questions whether Auckland Airport’s Carrie Hurihanganui might bring further change in direction.

She was Air New Zealand’s chief ground operations officer when, in 2018, her submission to Queenstown Airport Corporation’s air noise boundary expansion proposal argued a new international airport was needed “that can cater for the future growth of all domestic and international travel to Otago.” 

Her submission was cited as a trigger for Christchurch International Airport Ltd’s $45 million purchase of 750 ha of land near Tarras last year.