Whakatāne Mayor Victor Luca has made an appeal to central government for support to keep Air Chathams flying out of Whakatāne.

A response from Associate Transport Minister James Meager, though not making any firm promises, has provided some hope for some support for regional air connectivity.

Earlier this year, Air Chathams had requested additional support from Whakatāne District Council stating that without it, it would have to discontinue its Whakatāne to Auckland route.

The council refused the majority of Air Chathams requests, taking the stance that it should not be up to ratepayers to fund a commercial operation that a large portion of the district’s population did not use.

In a letter to both Minister for Transport Chris Bishop and Mr Meager, Dr Luca said he had been heartened to hear Mr Meager had said the Government was not ruling out underwriting the expansion of small regional airlines.

Dr Luca suggested distributing a small portion of the 51 percent government-owned Air New Zealand profit to support regional air connectivity.

He pointed out that in the 2023 financial year, Air NZ made a $412 million net profit.

“A subsidy of $1 million to Air Chathams from Air NZ profits would represent only 0.2 percent of that.”

He said given that Air NZ withdrew from providing a service to Whakatāne in 2015, he believed Government had an obligation to subsidise provincial airlines like Air Chathams, which stepped in to provide the service.

Mr Meager’s response acknowledged that the past few years had been particularly difficult for the aviation sector, especially smaller regional operators.

“The Regional Infrastructure Fund is one potential source of support and officials from the Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment Kānoa are working to develop options for ministerial consideration.

“Ministers are aware that the government’s dividend from Air New Zealand is another option,” he said.

“You can epect to hear more in coming months about how the Government can support regional air connectivity.”

Both Air Chathams and regional airline Sun Air have approached the Government for concessionary loans to help them stay in operation.

They have not yet recieved any confirmation that these will be forthcoming.