Air Chathams and Air New Zealand Interline Agreement Takes Off

The first three passengers using the interline agreement between Air Chathams and Air New Zealand took off from Whakatāne Airport this morning.

Air Chathams passengers can now book a connecting flight from Whakatāne to destinations nationwide through the Air New Zealand website. 

The first passengers using the system took off this morning.

The flight, heading to Auckland, connected three passengers to their flights to another destination. 

One passenger flew to Whangārei, and the others to Queenstown. 

Representatives from the airline welcomed the customers onto the flight and gifted the Queenstown bound couple a voucher for Chatham Island Crayfish to use on their trip. 

Air Chathams CEO Duanne Emeny said the agreement is a positive step forward and will positively impact regional connectivity, something that has been a long time in the making. 

“It’s been over 10 years in the making, actually,” he said.

"It's quite surreal, really. It's been a huge amount of work."

Since being announced in December, around 160 tickets have been purchased, which is a positive start Emeny said. 

"It's only one sector and it's connecting into domestic-only destinations, I think that's a really good start."

"We just want to see this thing implemented and any glitches ironed out."

"And then we want to see it expanding into the wider network and internationally, and that's when the real benefits will come to everyone."

Discussions for this have already begun. 

Queenstown bound Jill Connor and Des Miller Connor said when they booked their flight, they were unaware they would be the first to use the agreement. 

Connor said the agreement will make traveling to see their grandchildren in Queenstown much easier. 

"An awful lot easier, we don't have to now get to Auckland and pick up our luggage and then re-check it in again and then get our tickets down to Queenstown."

"It's all done here, we don't have to worry now," she said. 

Miller Connor said the convinenice of using the Whakatāne Airport to onnect to their flights elsewhere was something they would use again. 

"Our actual airport is a lot closer seeing as we live in Ōhope, so we don't have to travel up to Tauranga or Rotorua to get on Air New Zealand anymore." 

"So getting on more or less Air New Zealand at Whakatāne now."

Connor said the flight to Auckland has landed, and everything went well. 

Air New Zealand has announced cuts to some regional flights

The agreement comes during rising financial pressures on Airlines, but Emeny said that will not dampen this special time.

Air New Zealand announced a series of regional flight cuts, but Emeny remains positive it will not impact the agreement. 

"They've made some small cuts, like less than 5% of their network flights over the next two months, which is a very small number."

Following fuel price increases, "We support what Air New Zealand's doing in terms of looking at ways that can effectively reduce costs, especially those fuel costs, while still providing a really good service to the customer," he said. 

Those fuel costs have started hitting Air Chathams too.

"A lot of the fuel pricing has been escalated by well over a dollar a litre, almost instantaneously."

"And we're going to see more of that, most likely, as we head into April."

Increased fuel costs have started hitting air lines 

A $20 fuel surcharge has been put on Air Chathams flights to cope with the increase, and staff will monitor capacity to see if flights are viable.

"We'll obviously keep monitoring flights that we have in place and the loads that are currently booked on those flights as to whether the airline can actually afford and justify and operate some of those services."

"I think the Eastern Bay the demand seems to have dropped more than other places that we operate to."

However, he remains hopeful the interline service will encourage people to continue traveling. 

"I do think that having interline is going to be a really big step forward in terms of achieving that viable service."

He said the airline is looking at what support might be available from shareholders and central government before making any decisioins about reducing flight frequency.