Air Chathams' SAAB 340 aircraft may soon disappear from Whakatāne Airport. Photo: Supplied via LDR
Air Chathams needs support from Whakatāne District Council and the community if is to continue providing flights to the Eastern Bay.
The airline's chief commercial officer, Duane Emeny, said the company was reluctantly considering withdrawing from the Whakatāne to Auckland air route within the next six to 12 months.
Since April 2023 the airline had lost over $1 million on the route.
"We don't want to just pull the plug on Whakatāne as Air New Zealand did in 2015, but we need more support if we are going to continue operating," Emeny said.
Prior to Covid, Whakatāne had been the airline's best performing service.
Business travellers, who generally paid more per ticket than leisure flyers, made up more than 50 percent of passenger travel.
However, the airline retired the ageing 18-seat Metroliners, which were dedicated to the Whakatāne route, in November 2023. The airline introduced the 34-seat Saab 340, which are shared with the Kāpiti Coast air service. This meant it could not provide the flights needed to cater for the business market.
These included early morning and late afternoon return trips to Auckland for Whakatāne locals who needed to travel to Auckland for the business day, and return the same day.
"We can't make this route work if we don't cater to business traffic," Emeny said.
He said the airline had engaged with the council about the impending retirement of the Metroliner since late 2022 and tabled several options to ensure the Whakatāne service would not be impacted.
Air Chathams chief commercial officer Duane Emeny says the company was reluctantly considering withdrawing from the Whakatāne to Auckland air route. Photo: Supplied via LDR
"In the end we felt boxed into a corner and had to make quick decisions on whether we continue the route or not. We decided to continue without council supporting an aircraft upgrade, and implemented a schedule change that we knew would not fully meet the local market - especially the business travellers."
Emeny outlined the support he needed from council at a public excluded briefing on 26 March.
The airline is asking the council to lead a local investment campaign to support the purchase of a Saab 340 for Whakatāne and help it access a low-interest loan through the Local Government Funding Agency.
"We don't expect the council to pay for the aircraft, just to support us," Emeny said.
"We strongly believe the area can support a larger Saab 340 aircraft, but we need help for the first few years until the route has developed adequately."
Air Chathams was also asking that the council forgive a five-year loan of $350,000 it received in 2020 to support flights returning to Whakatāne after the first lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic. The money was a combined cash support package provided by three district councils all served by Air Chathams. The loan is due in November.
The council has recently returned to charging previously waived fees for use of the airport, and Air Chathams is seeking further assistance with this.
Emeny said while Whakatāne was an important route for Air Chathams, there were other regions in New Zealand keen to have Air Chathams providing air services or expanding their existing services.
"We're not feeling the love [from Whakatāne District Council] at the moment."
As of this month, the airline has been flying between Auckland and Whakatāne for 10 years since Air New Zealand withdrew from the route.
"We would much rather be having a big party to celebrate that awesome milestone. Instead, we are staring down the barrel of withdrawing our airline from the Eastern Bay," he said.
"[Air Chathams is] not all about making profits but at some point you need to ensure you are running a viable business with realistic growth prospects to justify the investment and hard work required to maintain it."
According to council staff a formal report will go to the 8 May council meeting for consideration. Because it was a commercially sensitive matter it had been discussed at a public-excluded council briefing but no decision had yet been made.
Mayor Victor Luca said councillors had not yet come to any decision on Emeny's requests. He would, personally, like to see more data about what proportion of the district used the airline.
"This is a question I have asked Duane many times. I know visitors use it, definitely tourists, but I would say most people don't use it. I've asked him for data and he's never supplied it. He gave me a few snippets here and there but no comprehensive surveys have actually been done.
"He's got a whole list of demands that Whakatāne ratepayers would have to pay for. The question is, should they?"
"We haven't in all of this, had much of a view of what the public think, and I would like to know."
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
