KEY POINTS:
Auckland International Airport's chief executive says the airport's future would be "heavily compromised" if a High Court claim over a chunk of its land succeeds.
The Lambie family say 36ha of their original Mangere farm that was compulsorily acquired in the 1970s should be returned to them at 1982 prices.
The Lambies, descendants of Manukau City founding mayor Hugh Lambie, say the land was taken for the development of an aerodrome, but has instead been used for commercial developments such as offices, Hertz Rental Car, McDonald's and the Butterfly Creek tourist attraction.
The airport's chief executive, Don Huse, told the High Court yesterday that the claimed land - located mostly north of Tom Pearce Drive and east of George Bolt Memorial Drive - was "heartland airport".
He said it sat between what will be the airport's two runways, and was an integral part of the company's long-term plans.
"In my view the public interest in the airport both present and future will be heavily compromised if the claimed land reverted to its previous ownership."
But the Craigie Trust, which owned the land on behalf of the Lambie family, has argued that the land should be returned according to the Public Works Act 1981.
The act says land no longer needed for the public works it was acquired for must be offered back to its original owners. The trust's case is that the land should be offered for sale at its February 1982 market value, the date the revised law came into force.
Commercial real estate agents have estimated the land would have been worth about $15 million in the 1980s, and would be valued at around $144 million now.
Mr Huse said proposals for use of the land were very much airport-related - such as an aviation "campus" including airport company and Air New Zealand offices; an Air New Zealand learning centre; and a holding area for licensed passenger vehicles such as taxis and shuttles.
However, he admitted under cross examination by Colin Carruthers, QC, that there was no immediate project for the undeveloped part of the claimed land, and that plans had been noted in board papers only in the past four months - more than a year after the court case commenced.
He also conceded the former Lambie land is marked as "commercial" in the airport's 20-year masterplan released in 2005, the most recent formal planning document.
But despite the colour coding on the masterplan, in planning terms there was only one way the airport could go, Mr Huse said, because it couldn't go west, north or south.
"What I see there are arrows pointing to the east, which indicates profoundly to me that the direction of development for the airport is to the east," he told Mr Carruthers.
The QC put it to him that only 15 per cent of the property had been developed since it was acquired 30 years ago, and that the land was being held "just in case".
"No, it's not fair to say that," Mr Huse replied.
He said roads such as George Bolt Memorial Drive and Tom Pearce Drive had been developed on the land in that time, and stormwater and power infrastructure for the airport were also located there.
Mr Huse earlier told the court that 70 per cent of all visitors to New Zealand arrived through the airport.
It added $19 billion in value to the New Zealand economy, and provided 283,000 fulltime-equivalent jobs. "By any measure Auckland Airport is a vital piece of public infrastructure."
* THE DISPUTE
36ha of the Lambie family's Mangere farm was compulsorily acquired in the 1970s for the development of an aerodrome.
The family trust says the land should be returned at 1982 prices because it hasn't been used for airport development.
Auckland International Airport says the land is "heartland airport" and the future of a vital public asset would be severely compromised without it.
