Passengers should have confidence landing at Queenstown Airport, despite its runway's safety areas being the minimum length allowed

Civil Aviation director Graeme Harris has responded to comments made at a public meeting in Queenstown on Monday that heard it was only a matter of time before an aircraft went off the end of the runway.

Mr Harris says the airport's runway end safety areas meet New Zealand's rules for existing runways and those of the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

There needs to be a minimum of 90m at both ends of the runway strip, which Queenstown Airport has.

More than 200 people attended the meeting about an alternative "master plan" for the airport in which it would be relocated and the current site redeveloped for housing.

Any new airport, or a major upgrade such as that proposed for Wanaka Airport, would require 240m safety areas.