Air New Zealand Sells Mount Cook Airport to Tourism Milford

Air New Zealand has completed the sale of Mount Cook Airport to a New Zealand owned company Tourism Milford Limited which has interests in a number of tourism businesses in the region, including: the Hermitage Mount Cook, the Milford and Routeburn guided walks and the Coronet, Remarkables and Mt Hutt ski fields. The ski fields were also recently purchased from Air New Zealand.

The Mount Cook Airport was formerly operated by the Mount Cook Group, a subsidiary of Air New Zealand, and remains subject to a ground lease administered by the Department of Conservation.

The terminal facility was only just over a year old, having been rebuilt last year after a fire destroyed the original building in June 2000.

Air New Zealand has not operated regular scheduled services to Mount Cook since February of this year, however, the airport is used by charter operators and the Mount Cook Ski Plane service which operates regular scenic flights in the area. Tourism Milford will work with other parties to re-establish required scheduled services in the future.

Other Air New Zealand assets sold this year were: Jetset Business Travel (in March) and Jetset Retail (in April).