The Supreme Court has found the Director of Civil Aviation "erred in law" when he accepted that Wellington Airport's runway safety areas could remain as short as legally possible, even if its runway is extended.
Wellington Airport wants to extend its runway 355 metres to the south to attract long-haul flights from Asia and the Americas.
It proposes keeping its safety areas at the legal minimum of 90 metres because anything longer would be uneconomic.
The runway end safety areas are located at either end of the runway, to minimise the danger of a plane missing, or running off the end of, the runway on take-off or landing.
By law, such safety areas must be at least 90 metres long, extending to 240 metres "if practicable", or the greatest "practicable" distance in between.
Today the Supreme Court ruled the Director wrongly decided that 90 metre safety areas would be acceptable, even if the runway were extended.
The Court said that was based on an outdated approach using cost/benefit analysis, which found longer safety areas were too expensive to justify.
"To that extent, we consider he erred in law. He was required to consider whether safety could be improved," the Court said.
The Director should have considered the economic benefits of the extension for the airport because that could have justified a longer safety area, it said.
The Court also said the Director erred by using the Airport's proposed extension and safety areas as his starting point, rather than the law.
Because of the ruling, the Director will now need to reconsider Wellington Airport's proposed runway extension.
In July 2016, the High Court in Wellington backed the decision of a 90-metre safety area for an extended Wellington Airport runway as sufficient, turning down a bid by pilots who wanted a review because they didn't regard it as long enough.
The New Zealand Airline Pilots' Association, representing about 2200 pilots and air traffic controllers, sought to have this High Court decision reviewed, claiming the 90-metre runway end safety area was too short and needed to be 240 metres.
The pilots' view was accepted in the Court of Appeal, and the Supreme court ruling today affirms its objections to the runway extension.
Also, in November 2016, Air New Zealand challenged Wellington Airport's plans for a runway extension as seriously flawed.
The Supreme court ruling today affirms both past objections to the runway extension.
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