Southern Star

Technology and tourism is driving a traffic boom at New Zealand’s Queenstown Airport

Through the introduction of jet operations and new instrument approach procedures, Queenstown Airport has become New Zealand’s fourth busiest and its fastest-growing airport.

But as recently as the late 1980s Queenstown, which sits in the shadows of the 7,500ft Remarkables mountain range, was not served by navigation aids or instrument approach procedures. So Mount Cook Airline HS. 748 turboprops, which provided the only scheduled passenger services to Queenstown, could only descend below route minimum safe altitude when theyhad established visual contact with the ground. Often the mountainous terrain required aircraft to remain at 10,000ft while looking for a break in the cloud before descending.