Innovation for growth

By Liza Van Der Merwe and JC Hernandez

With the right building blocks in place, New Zealand can unlock innovation, economic growth, scientific advancement, and global leadership in space and advanced aviation, meeting the ambition to double the size of New Zealand’s space and advanced aviation sectors by 2030.

The recently published New Zealand Space and Advanced Aviation Strategy sets out the Government’s objective of doubling the size of New Zealand’s space and advanced aviation sectors by 2030. To inform future government initiatives that would support sector development and to measure the impact of those initiatives, the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment engaged Deloitte Access Economics and Space Trailblazer to perform an economic analysis of the New Zealand space and advanced aviation sectors.

The space sector contributed $2.47 billion to New Zealand in the 2024 financial year, while the advanced aviation sector contributed $0.48 billion over the same period. The space sector directly supports an estimated 7,000 full time equivalent roles, and an additional 10,000 indirect FTE jobs, while the advanced aviation sector has supported an estimated 2,000 FTE jobs, and an additional 1,700 indirect FTE jobs.

Since 2019, the space sector has expanded from an estimated $1.75 billion, marking a 53% increase or year on year growth of 8.9%. This outpaced the global space sector’s growth of 40.6% over the same period.

The report charts the present landscape of New Zealand's space and advanced aviation sectors, integrating research and analysis from the following primary focus areas:

• Defining the space and advanced aviation sectors.
• Mapping New Zealand’s space and advanced aviation sectors.
• Measuring the economic contribution of the space and advanced aviation sectors.

Please get in touch with our experts for more information.