Air Chathams uses a Saab 340 to service its Kapiti to Auckland route. Photo / David Haxton
Air Chathams uses a Saab 340 to service its Kapiti to Auckland route. Photo / David Haxton
A social media post about Air Chathams getting funding from Kāpiti Coast District Council’s ratepayers’ coffers lacks the full picture, the airline’s chief financial officer Duane Emeny said.
Former Kāpiti Coast District Council councillor Gwynn Compton posted on social media that he had received a Local Government Official Information Act (LGOIA) response in which he could “reveal” the council was “effectively subsidising Air Chathams by an average of $250,000 a year”.
“Now, some of this was known publicly before, such as the $50,000 payments for marketing support and the $500,000 loan that finally became public after council officers decided to impair it (believing it would unlikely get repaid), but the bulk of those payments made to Air Chathams will be news to most residents.
“Is this money well spent?
“Arguably it was justified in terms of trying to get an operator to replace Air New Zealand and then to re-establish services after the first Covid lockdown, and other councils did similar.
“I’d also note I was one of just three councillors at the time who pushed for the loan to be made public.
“But if this rate of subsidy continues, then we have to ask why Kāpiti Coasters aren’t using Air Chathams enough for it to stand on its own two feet, and if there’s a more effective use for that money.”
But Air Chathams’ chief operating officer Duane Emeny said, “It is disappointing to see this level of poor context applied to a scenario where the person who delivered the post had more detail on the reality of the funding provided, and why when they were in public office.
“In this instance, Kāpiti Coast District Council has done its district a service by ensuring the critical air links into Auckland are maintained post Air New Zealand’s speedy withdrawal in 2018.
An Air Chathams plane arrives in Kāpiti. Photo / David Haxton
“They could not predict the pandemic and were key in establishing loan agreements with all three North Island councils with which we connect flights into Auckland to ensure Air Chathams could weather the storm and come back strong, as we have done.
“The wider economic impact of these services is far more than the funding received, and when surveyed with the community, the support for retaining the airport and those critical air connections to New Zealand’s largest city were clear.”
Council’s strategy, operations and finance committee chair Sophie Handford said funding agreements for Air Chathams were made by the previous council.
“There hasn’t been a discussion with this new team of people but that will be happening later in the year.
“We will be briefed around the current nature of those grants and agreements and then the future of them.”
She said a public excluded item at tomorrow’s committee meeting, about Kāpiti Coast Airport activity, “wasn’t about Air Chathams at all”.
“It’s more about the ongoing nature of what’s happening at the airport such as Treaty negotiations.”
Compton’s LGOIA request showed in 2018/19 the airline received two air service support grants from the council of $190,000 and $200,000.
In 2019/20 it received air service support of $174,167 and marketing support of $24,390.
