A Bombardier Q300 comes in to land at Whangārei Airport in Onerahi. Photo / Tania Whyte
A Bombardier Q300 comes in to land at Whangārei Airport in Onerahi. Photo / Tania Whyte
Opinion by Simon Russell
OPINION
New Zealand is at a ‘creating the future’ moment.
Ministerial appointments of Simeon Brown (Transport), Matt Doocey (Tourism), and Shane Jones (Regional Development) could fast-track this window of opportunity, boosting the economy and job creation for current and future generations.
Each generation has opportunities that could leave a lifetimelegacy. Urgent government focus is required to re-energise the aviation sector. Aviation enables tourists to visit our country, and tourism creates jobs and economic wealth.
Earlier generations spread their wings by embracing aviation.
New Zealand has over 100 years of history with farmer and inventor, Richard Pearse, flying a machine in Canterbury in 1903 or 1904, possibly before the Wright brothers.
Pioneers such as National Airways Corporation ushered in an age of mass domestic travel, together with Mt Cook Airways and others, connecting small cities, towns, and tourist attractions by air.
Our national aviation roots have enabled a combination of aviation and tourism to improve connectivity and frequency of air service to our towns and cities, increasing economic growth where, in 2019, tourism was almost 10 per cent of our total GDP annually.
What would a 15 per cent or 20 per cent of total GDP contribution mean to our economy in jobs, highly skilled employment, ease of travel, and indirect economic growth?
Simon Russell, managing director and chief executive of Eagle Aviation Consulting. Photo / Supplied
The country’s remoteness and rugged geography have created a ‘mother of invention’ necessity for air services to smaller regions. As part of a climate event response, introducing next-generation, small turboprop aircraft with nine-30 seats, could support a wider connectivity, be carbon-neutral, and support an economic boost for the country.
Regional air services create and support jobs in communities and promote business through greater ease of access. There is a need to understand demand from a local perspective in conjunction with tourist flows to sustainably plan over the next 5 to 25 years.
For current and future generations, New Zealand has a huge debt to be repaid and GDP growth is the means.
Tourism and trade are two key parts and due to our geographical isolation, with our country depending heavily on air transport, both internationally and domestically.
Government and business have joint roles to fulfil to promote destinational attractiveness (visitors) and ensure capital efficiency (productivity, investment, and market reach for essential services and perishable products).
Lifting the understanding of tourism demand and forecasting, with seasonality, is a specialty of aviation experts as the airline world runs on real-time data and trends.
An opportunity for the new government is to leverage this expertise commissioning a coordinated strategy that acknowledges shifting markets and seasonality to set a framework for a national strategy. A cohesive and coordinated strategy can facilitate investment and improvements in air transport both nationally and across borders.
Coordination of potential sector growth affords opportunities to streamline international tourism experiences while increasing the utilisation of airports nationwide through growth over time. Growth can also open up competition to further contest cost of supply, typically improving the affordability of air travel.
Climate events have highlighted how isolated parts of New Zealand are, and therefore the ability to quickly and easily travel to and from regions means includes not only roading infrastructure, but also improved air services.
Businesses and communities need access to same-day travel and this means some smaller airports could be ‘woken up’ if smaller aircraft with carbon-neutral technology could offer frequent air services.
Within the next few years, new generation aircraft with electric/hydrogen power will be coming online, and likely operating cost improvements can make smaller aircraft a viable proposition.
New Zealand has a great opportunity as one of the most mature aviation industries globally, with award-winning accolades for destinational uniqueness, and innovation products and services. The sector has the potential to leverage this capability and capacity offshore to a much greater extent with developing countries.
New electric/hydrogen technology offers potential for green aviation flights, rightsized, to potentially revive unserved destinations.
Regional development and tourism can support frequent and affordable air services to towns and cities such as Kaitaia and Kaikohe (both WW2 airfields), Masterton, Oamaru, Greymouth, Wanaka, Milford Sound, Te Anau, Mount Cook, Wairoa (which is climate-vulnerable), and more.
Promoting investment will require a coordinated government and industry strategic effort, and regional communities need an all-of government focus to support growth, connectivity, and de-risk high barriers to entry.
It’s a once-in-generation call to capture current and future generational potential just as others boldly envisioned more than 100 years ago.
Simon Russell is managing director and chief executive of Auckland-based Eagle Aviation Consulting
