The plan's co-author, architect and urban designer David Jerram, told the audience a New Zealand Airline Pilots' Association officer had told him it was a case of "not if, but when" an aircraft went off the end of the runway.
Mr Jerram told the Otago Daily Times yesterday it was not the only alarming comment about the runway's safety areas he had heard from an aviation insider.
"Another pilot, who flies in here on A320s, told me he doubted you'd find many pilots who didn't think there would be an incident before long."
Such an incident could be as minor as an aircraft rolling off the end of the runway.
"But it could also be much more catastrophic."
It did not make sense to spend millions on further developing an airport with a runway of "bare minimum" length, he said. Any new airport, or a major upgrade such as that proposed for Wanaka Airport, would require 240m safety areas.
However, Mr Harris said Queenstown Airport had undergone 10 audits in the past five years and "the CAA is satisfied that the safety infrastructure in place in Queenstown is appropriate and sufficient to give passengers, airlines and the airport community confidence".
The Queenstown Airport Corporation said on Monday it was proposing turbo-prop and narrow-body jet flights at Wanaka from 2025.
