PO Box 14001
Christchurch 8544
New Zealand
Telephone (+64 3) 358 5029
christchurchairport.co.nz
29 August 2023
Sasha Holden
Email: [FYI request #23658 email]
Tēnā koe Ms Holden
OFFICIAL INFORMATION ACT 1982 (OIA) – REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION -
CHRISTCHURCH INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT LIMITED (CIAL)
1. We write further to our email of 02 August 2023, acknowledging receipt of your OIA
request of 01 August 2023 seeking information (if held by CIAL) in relation to CIAL’s
tenants.
We have answered your request in this letter and for completeness, we set out your
request below. Please note, after your initial request, you sent a further email
clarification regarding the region in which you were requesting.
2.
Request: Received 01 August 2023 - Christchurch Airport Tenants - nature,
number, space occupied:
“I would like a list of the business name, business type and floor space (square meters
occupied) of all tenants, licensees or similar of Christchurch Airport, both within the
terminal and on any land owned or managed by Christchurch Airport, near the airport
itself or elsewhere. If you need to redact the names of businesses for commercial
reasons, please do so, but please explain why this would be an issue. This request holds
for those who are tenants in the legal sense, OR occupy space at Christchurch Airport
under some other arrangement or legal structure.
Please also supply the total remaining floor space held by Christchurch Airport for the
company’s own use (ie not tenants) both AT the airport, and then separately all other
land owned or controlled by Christchurch Airport.”
3. From the outset, please note that CIAL will provide you with the requested
information where it is able. However, you will note within this letter that it is
occasionally unable to release requested information if it would prejudice or
disadvantage CIAL’s commercial activities.
4. CIAL is a council-controlled trading organisation that has been specifically
established to operate and manage its business as an independent commercial
undertaking for the purposes of making a profit, and to follow generally accepted
commercial practices and disciplines. CIAL is not a public body collecting and
spending public funds. It operates as a wholly commercial, standalone entity. Due
to the size and scale of those activities it is one of only three major airports in New
Zealand regulated under Part 4 of the Commerce Act.
5. In respect to your request we have split this into two parts (a) and (b), which we
have dealt with separately below:
Request: -
Christchurch Airport Tenants - nature, number, space occupied:
(a) “I would like a list of the business name, business type and floor space (square meters
occupied) of all tenants, licensees or similar of Christchurch Airport, both within the
terminal and on any land owned or managed by Christchurch Airport, near the airport
itself or elsewhere. If you need to redact the names of businesses for commercial
reasons, please do so, but please explain why this would be an issue. This request holds
for those who are tenants in the legal sense, OR occupy space at Christchurch Airport
under some other arrangement or legal structure.”
We cannot release the list of all CIAL tenants as to do so, would disadvantage our
commercial activities (section 9(2)(i) OIA); therefore, we are unable to provide you
with this information. Furthermore, CIAL considers the information sought to be
confidential given they will be subject to standard commercial leases containing
confidentiality provisions.
(b) “Please also supply the total remaining floor space held by Christchurch Airport for the
company’s own use (ie not tenants) both AT the airport, and then separately all other
land owned or controlled by Christchurch Airport.”
Regarding the total remaining floor space, roughly 41,000 square metres is the floor
space held by Christchurch Airport for the company’s own use as an airport made up
of terminal and non-terminal square metre areas which does not materially change
year to year. The breakdown of the terminal functional square metres is available on
our
website
under
the
Financial
Reports
Regulatory
Disclosures:
https://www.christchurchairport.co.nz/about-us/who-we-are/financial-
reports/regulatory-disclosures/
In relation to all other land owned or controlled by Christchurch Airport, this is publicly
available, so we recommend you seeking out this information through Toitū Te
Whenua (‘Land Information New Zealand’). For ease of reference, please note CIAL
owns the Shipley’s Block in Canterbury which has tenants. In addition, CIAL owns
approximately 800 hectares in Central Otago currently tenanted by three individuals
or entities.
6. We trust we have answered your requests for information. If you require any further
information or if we have in some way misinterpreted your requests, please let us
know.
7. You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of the
decisions contained in this letter. Information about how to contact the Ombudsman
or make a complaint is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone
0800 802 602.
Yours sincerely
CIAL LEGAL TEAM
Email: [Christchurch International Airport Limited request email]
