Mortgage maestro ready to spread his wings

By CHRIS DANIELS, aviation writer

Mike Pero, charismatic mortgage broker and successful businessman, has ambitions to be Mike Pero, airline owner.

He is sole director and shareholder of Pacific Express Airlines, registered with the Companies Office in February.

Pero said that despite registering the Pacific Express Airlines name, there were no immediate plans to start flying.

"I saw some opportunities in the Pacific, and I haven't taken it too much further at this stage," he said. "I just thought I'd grab a company name while one was available.

"We may do something down the line, but the focus now is the mortgage broking business."

Pero is no aviation neophyte. He once ran a one-plane Christchurch-based commuter airline, Airlink Services, which flew to Timaru and Alexandra feeding into the former Ansett New Zealand network.

"I have an interest in aviation and have considered something through to the Pacific Islands in more recent times, but that's as far as it's gone."

Pero, who is travelling the country promoting the public offer of shares in Mike Pero Mortgages, set up his broking firm in 1990. It now has 35 franchised brokers.

He sold 90 per cent of the company last month to Christchurch businessman George Gould for $13.5 million.

Pero has Cook Islands heritage and was last year's business person of the year at the Pacific Business Awards, something that should help attract loyalty from Pacific Island travellers.

Pero said it was coincidence that Air NZ's new Pacific service was also called Pacific Express, as he had chosen the name before Air NZ began its advertising.

This winter holiday season might prove to be a particularly risky time to be setting up a new airline in the Pacific as competition heats up.

Air NZ responded aggressively to a Fiji air-charter plan launched last year by the Flight Centre and local aviation company Airworks.

As soon as details of the charters were announced by the Flight Centre, Air NZ's discount wing, Freedom Air, began flights from the same provincial cities and dramatically dropped its prices.

The Flight Centre-Airworks scheme was eventually canned, but one industry player said the Pacific routes were increasingly competitive.