Airways will trial a satellite system that continually tracks planes across vast ocean areas, cutting the risk of an aircraft vanishing as Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 did nearly three years ago.
The new system will give air traffic controllers another layer of surveillance but it doesn't guarantee against the possibility of someone aboard the plane disabling equipment to prevent tracking.
Airways is working with United States firm Aireon which has launched 10 of a constellation of 66 satellites in near space which will start sending test data back to the New Zealand air traffic controller from June.
Airways' chief operating officer Pauline Lamb said the state-owned enterprise would examine what the data from the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system meant for airline customers and their passengers.
"Instead of having data and surveillance from hilltop sites you've got satellites going around the world and feeding information from the top down which gives us a good picture of where aircraft are," she said.