Refunds on way for airshow ticket buyers

Holders of tickets to a failed Waikato airshow are finally to get their money back - more than a year after the planned event.

A High Court judge has ordered that the $500,000 paid for tickets to the postponed Wings and Wheels over Waikato be used to pay refunds to about 3500 ticket-holders.

The event, which organiser and promoter Ken Ross billed as the biggest of its kind in the country with the potential to inject millions into the local economy, was to take place in March. But the show never got off the ground.

The Commerce Commission obtained a court order freezing the assets of Hawker Holdings, Airshow.co.nz, Media Ltd, airshow.co.nz Ltd and Kenneth James Ross so the money would be available for refunds.

Justice Graham Lang, sitting in Auckland, said the funds, being held in trust by the airshow's organisers, should be transferred to liquidators Insolvency Management.

The court will decide which ticket holders have a legal entitlement to a refund and the liquidators will administer the refund process.

Wellingtonian Tom Ludlow, who was among the hundreds who paid in advance to go to the event, said the news was "certainly good".

Mr Ludlow had planned to take his 84-year-old father and paid $600 for two gold passes for two days at the show and hundreds more on flights and accommodation.

Instead, he became one of the 2300 people who applied for a refund through the commission. A further 1200 ticket-holders have yet to fill in application forms.

Commerce Commission director of fair trading Adrian Sparrow said the court was yet to determine which ticket-holders were eligible for a refund.

Last year, he expected a shortfall of $65,000 in the ticket-holders' account but said those claiming a refund would get most if not all of their money back.

The mechanism for the refund process had not yet been set.

"As a result, we ask for ticket-holders to continue to be patient," said Mr Sparrow.

Mr Ross, who did not appear at Tuesday's hearing, could not be contacted for comment.

In September, he is scheduled to appear in the Hamilton District Court to face more than 100 charges, including misleading conduct and making false representations.

A website promoting the airshow says it has been "postponed to a future date".