NEW ZEALAND: Air Chathams To Buy Kiwi Regional Airlines' Saab 340A Aircraft

Kiwi Regional Airlines has this afternoon announced that the operation will be wound up.

Air Chathams will purchase Kiwi Regional Airlines' Saab 340A aircraft and will absorb the aircraft and offer employment to the majority of Kiwi Regional Airlines' full-time staff and absorb them into its operations from the beginning of August.

Air Chathams runs a 5-aircraft operation with scheduled services between the Chatham Islands and Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch as well as a regular scheduled service between Whakatane and Auckland.

It has previously announced it would fill the gap left by Air New Zealand's withdrawal of services between Whanganui and Auckland, starting on 1st August 2016. It had planned to use an 18-seat Metroliner, but will now use Kiwi Regional's 34-seat Saab 340 on this route.

Kiwi Regional Airlines will continue to run its scheduled services until 30th July, and will then run the Whanganui to Auckland service for Air Chathams using Kiwi Regional's Air Operating Certificate until Air Chathams can move the aircraft onto its own AOC.

Kiwi Air passengers booked on flights after midday on July 30 will receive full refunds, or be offered alternative travel on flights before that date. All Kiwi Air charter flights with school groups in August and September will still operate.

Kiwi Air CEO Ewan Wilson said Kiwi had "a choice to either expand by adding a second aircraft to our own fleet, guaranteeing reliability of service, and splitting the very high compliance costs; or be absorbed into a larger player."

"From my point of view I am pleased our aircraft and flight staff will become part of the Air Chathams operation. We have had a formal maintenance agreement with Air Chathams since the start, and this will be an extension of that relationship."

In April Mr Wilson stepped down temporarily from his Hamilton City councillor duties and his role with Kiwi Regional Air to undergo surgery to manage a treatment injury stemming from cancer treatment in 2011 and 2013.

Kiwi Regional Airlines began operations late last year after gaining approval from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in October.

The collapse of Mr Wilson's previous Hamilton-based airline Kiwi Air with a debts of $8 million in 1996 resulted in four fraud convictions and Wilson being banned from holding a directorship for five years.

Kiwi Regional Air was formed with investment from 2 Cheap Cars Limited which sold its shares to Andrew and Anne King in February.

A press release from Kiwi Regional Air said Andrew King, whose investments include King's Finance and King's Cars and who sits on the Hamilton City Council alongside Macpherson and Wilson, would not be part of the Airline's management team.

NEW ZEALAND: Kiwi Regional Air Halts Queenstown To Dunedin Flights

Kiwi Regional Air purchased one SAAB 340A for about $2 million.

Kiwi Regional Airlines is cancelling its Dunedin-Queenstown service less than a month after launching.

The Hamilton airline will operate its last flight between Dunedin and Queenstown on November 30.

Kiwi Air began operating scheduled services on October 27 and on its first day cut back its Dunedin to Queenstown service due to a lack of passenger demand.

In a statement on Wednesday Kiwi Air chief executive Ewan Wilson said passengers with Queenstown flights booked after November 30 would be refunded or offered alternative travel arrangements.

Staff affected by the decision had been contacted by the company, Wilson said.

He did not say how many staff were affected.

The Queenstown route had been "extremely challenging" due to weather-related cancellations and low passenger bookings, Wilson said.

"We made a commercial decision to end the scheduled Queenstown flights before they affected the performance of our whole company."

NEW ZEALAND: Confusion Over Kiwi Regional Plane

Confusion over who actually owns Kiwi Regional Airlines' first aircraft has developed between the new airline and its shareholder 2 Cheap Cars - before a single customer has made it onto a flight.

Kiwi Regional Airlines chief executive Ewan Wilson says a press release put out by the second hand car dealer yesterday contained a factual error, and that he was never consulted about the release.

The statement, put out yesterday afternoon, outlined 2 Cheap Cars' purchase of a Saab 340A from Poland "through its subsidiary Kiwi Regional Airlines".

It said the plane was 36-seater, and opened with a line saying the car company would be "bringing its first aircraft into the country in a few weeks".

Wilson took issue with any suggestion Kiwi Regional Airlines did not own the aircraft, or might be leasing it, saying "categorically" that the aircraft belonged to the airline, and he could "only assume...they were trying to express the fact that the airline of which 2 Cheap Cars owns some shares has bought an aeroplane."

He also says the plane is a 34-seater, and the deal had only be signed at 9.20pm Thursday night, so he was unsure why a press release had gone out that afternoon. He wasn't consulted on the release, and still hasn't seen it despite asking for it.

"I respect our shareholder's right to express their involvement as an investor in the airline, and obviously, at the next shareholder meeting there will be a clarification in terms of communication and who speaks for the company," he said.

Wilson refused to answer any questions about the relationship with 2 Cheap Cars, saying instead that he was "very happy...that Kiwi Regional Airlines has brought an aeroplane".

2 Cheap Cars chief executive Eugene Williams says there are no problems with communication. However, he refused to answer questions over why Wilson had not been sent the press release, been informed about it, or whether it contained factual errors.

Via email from overseas, he said simply that the press release was a 2 Cheap Cars release.

The plane involved is the second run in the Saab 340 series, first produced in 1983. The 340A hit the skies in after 1985, and production on the Saab 340s finished up in the mid 1990s. Air New Zealand replaced its Saab 340s in 2004.

Wilson says the plane is currently undergoing a thorough maintenance check, and will be repainted with the company's new livery. It will also have to undergo a CAA inspection before it leaves Poland.

2 Cheap Cars owns 22.73 per cent of Kiwi Regional Airline shares, while Wilson owns 54.55 per cent, and Nicole Domett owns another 22.73 per cent.

NEW ZEALAND: Kiwi Regional Airlines Gears Up For Big Test

Three weeks out from its first passenger flight, Kiwi Regional Airlines still has one all-important task to tick off the list.

It needs to get its licence.

The regional airline, founded by Hamilton City councillor Ewan Wilson, started up in response to Air New Zealand pulling out of some regional routes after claiming they were no longer cost-effective to service.

Kiwi Regional Airlines (Kiwi Air) will fly return flights between Hamilton and Nelson, Nelson and Dunedin, and Dunedin and Queenstown

Wilson, the new airline's chief executive, said Kiwi Regional Airlines' pilots and staff would be put through their paces on October 19, when the airline is required to undergo "proofing" with Civil Aviation Authority regulators to show it can operate the network it has proposed.

Regulators will fly the entire network with Kiwi Regional staff, and, says Wilson, he hopes the airline will get its licence days later.

Even so, that would be less than a week before the airline's scheduled launch on October 27.

Wilson said that was just the way the process worked and he was very confident the airline would make its launch date.

"We would not be selling tickets otherwise," he said.

Tickets for its flights have been on sale since August, and Wilson declined to say how many had been sold.
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But he said he was "very happy" with how well Nelson to Dunedin flights, and Hamilton to Nelson flights, had been selling.

The airline is running a Trade Me auction for its first "Golden Ticket", which allows passengers unlimited standby flights for six months.

"Airlines always struggle with what to do with unsold inventory," he said.

"We are trying to be a little bit innovative ... the difficulty is [knowing] what the market value of that [ticket] is."

With two days left to run, bids have reached $1011, and the auction has been viewed by more than 3600 people.

Wilson said he was happy with the response, and once the price point had been determined, the airline would probably offer 20 Golden Tickets per city, or 80 throughout the network.

NEW ZEALAND: Kiwi Regional Airlines Begins Proving Flights

Kiwi Regional Airlines chief executive Ewan Wilson says the airline will take its SAAB 340A on tour ahead of proving flights.


New Zealand's newest airline will take its aircraft on a nationwide tour on Sunday, a week before flying scheduled flights.

Ahead of a proving flight with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Monday, Hamilton company Kiwi Regional Airlines will take its SAAB 340A on tour to five airports.

Leaving from Hamilton at 9am the 34-seat aircraft will touch down in New Plymouth at 9.50am, Nelson at 10.50, Christchurch at 1.20pm, Dunedin at 2.30pm and Queenstown at 4.10pm.

Before they can operate airlines are required to conduct proving flights in order to gain certification from the CAA.

Kiwi Regional Airlines will fly return flights between Hamilton and Nelson, Nelson and Dunedin, and Dunedin and Queenstown from October 27.

Kiwi Regional Airlines chief executive Ewan Wilson said he would like the airline to eventually connect as many regional centres as possible.

Wilson would be one of the passengers aboard the flight tour along with other Kiwi Regional Airlines staff.

"For our pilots it's a fantastic chance to put the SAAB through its paces and make a real journey out of it," Wilson said.

Wilson founded the failed no-frills trans-Tasman Kiwi International Airlines in 1994.

NEW ZEALAND: New Airlines Prove Popular In Skies

New airlines in Nelson are proving popular for travellers bound for smaller centres across New Zealand.

Pre-tickets for new flight routes between Nelson, Hamilton and Dunedin have sold steadily for Kiwi Regional Airlines ahead of its first flight at the end of the month.

Kiwi Regional Airlines chief executive Ewan Wilson said he was "pleasantly surprised" with the response. About 50 per cent of the airline's 34 seater plane was full for its first few flights from Nelson to Hamilton and Dunedin.

"This far out [from our first flight] that figure is quite encouraging," said Wilson.

But the new airline is not out of the woods just yet. Proofing for the airline's aircraft will take place on October 19, which will certify whether the airline can begin flying its scheduled services on October 27.

"In aviation you can never count your chickens before they've hatched but my team have worked really hard," he said.

"We are quietly confident."

Meanwhile Originair managing director Robert Inglis, who launched a Nelson to Palmerston North route in August and more recently a Nelson to Wellington route, said he was pleased with the airline's growth.

"Almost two months in we are very pleased with the growth and demand," he said.

The airline's services were fully booked on Friday, and he was confident the demand would continue into summer.