Mr Lister said there had been annual NAC reunions since 2007, with numbers growing each year.
"It's hardly surprising as the Bay has become a retirement magnet for NAC people and Classic Flyers is a perfect location."
A de Havilland Dominie and a de Havilland Heron were based at Classic Flyers, and a former NAC DC-3 - now in use by Air Chathams - would be flying down from Mangere with a full load of former NAC personnel and families.
Two aircraft were expected from Hawke's Bay. One was a former NAC two-seater de Havilland Gipsy Moth that was used to transport engineers to airports where an aircraft was stranded with a maintenance problem. And while it did not fly for NAC, a Cessna Citation executive jet owned by GESL Aviation was bringing four ex-air hostesses from Hawke's Bay.
Attendees would include Auckland-based Jim Pavitt, who joined NAC as a pilot in 1955 when he was just 21, and his wife Suzanne, who was on the first NAC air hostess training course in 1956.
Mr Pavitt learned to fly on Tiger Moths when he was 17, and began flying with NAC with its de Havilland Heron fleet based out of Nelson.
He acknowledged the DC3s could be a challenge to fly and were very different from contemporary aircraft.
"They were what we called a 'tail dragger'," he said.
"They didn't have a nose wheel undercarriage, which made them really difficult to handle in cross winds or on the ground. But anyone who had that background [in Tiger Moths], had very little difficulty. They were very reliable airplanes because you more or less knew what they were going to do next."
However, the Pavitts would not be flying down for the reunion in the DC3.
"We have grandchildren and great-grandchildren in Tauranga, so we'll be having a leisurely journey down with our daughter to enjoy the reunion," he said.
"It's going to be quite a turnout."
Mr Pavitt said there was a lot of internal dismay when NAC was folded into Air New Zealand, which grew out of Tasman Empire Airways Ltd, originally set up to handle transport across the Tasman Sea.
"It should have been the other way round," he said. "NAC was a far bigger and more complex airline."
NAC
- Formed by the Labour Government at the end of World War II.
- Evolved from three pre-war airlines: Air Travel (NZ) Ltd serving the South Island's West Coast; Cook Strait Airways operating across the strait and down the West Coast to Hokitika; and Union Airways, backed by the Union Steamship Company.
- NAC merged with Air New Zealand in 1978.