Aircraft are defined under the Civil Aviation Authority Rules.

All aircraft, including unmanned aircraft (drones), require a permission to land on, take off from, or hover over (collectively referred to as ‘landings’) public conservation lands and waters, other than for certain activities, such as: search and rescue; Departmental management purposes; emergency situations; maritime navigational-aid management; land survey work; aircraft operated by the New Zealand Defence Force or the Civil Aviation Authority; or any mining activity authorised under the Crown Minerals Act 1991.

Note that Wild animal recovery operations (WARO) and aerially assisted trophy hunting (AATH) are not covered in this section.

If you wish to use a private aircraft for personal recreational use, you will also need a concession. There are discounted fees for these activities if you are using a designated landing site or a site where DOC is comfortable that the effects are well understood.

Pre-application advice

Applying for a concession for the first time can be a little tricky. To ensure your application goes smoothly we advise you to contact us for pre-application advice. We’ll help you to:

• Understand the concession you will need to apply for.
• Navigate our statutory planning documents, so you can consider whether the activity you wish to undertake is consistent with them.
• Understand DOC’s responsibility to give effect to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, which requires consultation with Treaty Partners on most applications. If you wish, DOC can help you contact the local iwi, hapū, and whānau to assess whether your proposed activity will have any cultural effects. Often this consultation can enhance the activity you are considering.

Type of concession

Depending on what you want to do and when and how you want to do it, you will either need a one-off concession or a longer term concession. 

One-off concession – for aircraft landings required for a period of no longer than three months.

As well as complying with all relevant legislation and conservation plans or strategies your planned activity must:

• have only minor environmental effects that can easily be managed
• have clearly defined limits (ie number of landings)
• not involve permanent structures
• not take place in the same location more than once in any three year period

• only take place in one DOC operational region.

Use DOC Maps to check the DOC operational region for your activity.

Longer term concession – for aircraft activities for up to 10 years.

Your DOC advisor will advise you what concession you will need in your pre application meeting.

Apply for your concession

Follow the relevant process below for your aircraft activity. There are additional applications you will need to make if your activity involves anything outside of aircraft activities, such as water transport or land-based guiding activities.

One-off activity

• Fill in the applicant information form 1b – one off process (PDF, 189K) or (Word, 354K).
• Fill in the aircraft activities form (PDF, 813K) or (Word, 105K).
• Email the forms along with the relevant documents requested to permissions@doc.govt.nz.

Identify the name and status of the public conservation land you wish to use by checking DOC maps.

Longer-term activity

• Fill in the aircraft activities form (PDF, 813K) or (Word, 105K).
• Email the forms along with the relevant documents requested to permissions@doc.govt.nz.

Identify the name and status of the public conservation land you wish to use by checking DOC maps.

If your application is approved we will send you a contract which you must sign and return before proceeding with your activity.

Find out more

Find out more about the process and how to prepare your application.

Permissions application process

Preparing a permission application

Timeframe

One-off applications are generally processed in shorter timeframes, dependent on whether iwi consultation is required.

Complex applications could take a number of months to be processed. If your proposed activity has to be notified to the public because there are likely to be significant environmental effects over the duration of your activity, this will impact your application processing time.

How long it takes to process an application

Fees

We charge an application processing fee based on the time required to process your application and staff hourly charge-out rates. Complex applications cost more as they take longer to process. After you apply, we will assign your application to a processing category that reflects its complexity. Each category has a minimum processing fee.

The minimum fees for one-off aircraft activity are:

• $180 plus GST for aircraft landings at Milford Sound Aerodrome, and
• $740 plus GST for all other aircraft landings.

If you are applying to use a private aircraft for personal recreational use with no commercial gain, we will discount your processing fee by 50%.

Learn more about processing categories and minimum fees

If you seek pre-application advice, we can tell you the category and minimum processing fee that will most likely apply to your application. We will confirm your minimum processing fee once your application is accepted and assigned to a processing category. If we expect your processing fee to exceed the minimum fee, we will give you a non-binding fee estimate before we start work .

We will usually invoice your fee after processing is complete. If you withdraw your application, you will be charged for any work already done.

If your application is approved, ongoing permission fees may apply.

Additional applications

If your aircraft activity involves one of the activities below you must also fill in the relevant form for that activity.

• Land-based guiding (such as walking, hunting, fishing) – concession application form 4a (land-based guided activities) (PDF, 70K) or (Word, 344K).
• Water transport (such as kayaking or boat transfers) – concession application form 4b (watercraft activities) (PDF, 70K) or (Word, 343K).
• Building, extending or adding to any permanent or temporary structures or facilities on public conservation land – concession application form 3b (private/commercial facility/structures) (PDF, 69K) or (Word, 341K).
• Tenancy of any DOC managed buildings (other than overnight usage of huts) – concession application form 3a (tenanting or using existing DOC structure/facility) (PDF, 56K) or (Word, 326K). 

Drones

To use a drone on public conservation land for any reason, you need a concession from DOC.

See Drone use on conservation land for more information about applying for a drone concession.

Noise abatement certification

DOC has worked with the aviation industry to create noise abatement processes to manage the effect of aircraft noise on other users of public conservation land.

Aircraft operators are required to hold noise abatement certification in these locations:

• Aorak /Mount Cook National Park: Hooker and Tasman valleys
• Westland National Park: Glacier valleys
• Fiordland National Park: Milford Sound, Milford Track, Routeburn Track, Hollyford Valley, Greenstone and Caples Valley, Gertrude Saddle.

Providers of noise abatement certification are:

• Aviation Industry Association
• Stoneybrook Training

Contact us

For more information or assistance with your concession contact the nearest of these DOC offices.