Regulatory Airport Spatial Undertakings (RASUs)

A RASU demonstrates how airport operators will provide enough space for government agencies to operate at the airport.

It gives government agencies assurance that their current and future infrastructure needs can be met.

A RASU helps to give airports confidence to plan for, and price, their future infrastructure requirements and changes.

RASUs aim to support greater coordination between government and airports. They will help provide a joint picture of Government objectives and airports’ commercial operations and planning.

An airport operator must prepare a RASU if one or more government agencies require space or when they are notified by one or more government agencies that they will require it.

Relevant government agencies are:

• New Zealand Customs Service
• Civil Aviation Authority (Aviation Security Service)
• Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (Immigration New Zealand)
• Ministry for Primary Industries
• Ministry of Health (optional)

An airport operator can apply to be exempt from:

• the requirement to make a RASU
• the timeframe to make a RASU
• reviewing a RASU

An application for an exemption needs to include information about the rationale for applying and impacts that the exemption would have.

An airport’s RASU must:

• specify the space requirements and relevant government agencies concerned
• specify projects, milestones, and timeframes to meet the space requirements and related obligations (if any)
• comply with any prescribed requirements relating to the content, form, timing, and publication of RASU’s

An airport operator initiates a RASU by requesting information about space requirements from the relevant agencies.  

Agencies provide the airport operator with information about their current, and future known, space requirements.

The airport operator must also consult substantial customers before submitting the RASU to the Secretary for Transport to accept.

The Ministry will assess the application and may ask for more information if required.  Once a RASU is accepted, it becomes a binding undertaking and is enforceable.  The RASU’s acceptance will be recorded in the (publicly available) airport register on the Ministry’s website.

If a RASU application doesn’t meet the requirements, the Ministry will liaise with the airport operator on matters that need to be addressed before it is resubmitted.

There is no required term for a RASU, but airport operators must review their RASU at least every five years.

RASUs can be reviewed more often if an agency requests this due to a changing space requirement.

Airport operators are encouraged to regularly review their RASU to ensure it is operating as intended, and to work with the Ministry to revise it if needed.