Whakatane flights still up in the air

The future of flights into Whakatane remains up in the air with at least two airlines keen to service the Eastern Bay of Plenty town.

On Thursday, Air Chathams chief executive Craig Emeny confirmed he would like to provide a twice-daily service to Auckland when Air New Zealand pulls its flights at the end of April.

Yesterday, Tauranga-based airline Sunair chief executive Dan Power told the Rotorua Daily Post his company was also keen to service the Whakatane to Auckland route, as well as other regional routes such as Napier and Hamilton.

The Whakatane District Council is yet to decide whether it will go for the Air Chathams proposal and will hold an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday to discuss the issue.

Whakatane mayor Tony Bonne said Air Chathams would present its business case at the meeting.

On Thursday Mr Emeny said the airline could use a 50 or 18-seater aircraft - but wanted to use the bigger one as much as possible.

"It'll depart in the early morning and arrive about 8am in Auckland, which will allow business people to carry out their business," he said.

Flights had been limited to 19 seats in the past.

In November last year Air New Zealand announced it would be axing services to and from Whakatane Airport from April. The company said that for more than two years its fleet of 19-seater aircraft had been losing more than $1 million a month on the route.

Mr Bonne said there were other issues to discuss at Tuesday's meeting.

"We will also need to discuss how we will bring the airport up to scratch for a 50-seat aircraft because it's not certified at the moment for anything as large as a 50-seater.

"Reports will be coming to council at the meeting, but I understand this is not a major."

The Ministry of Transport will also be at the meeting as it is a 50 per cent shareholder in the airport.

"But, hopefully it will be all go; I'm very keen to see this happen," Mr Bonne said. "We want it to win for him [Mr Emeny] and we want it to win for us.

"We will be making a public statement as soon as the meeting is over."

Eastern Bay of Plenty Chamber of Commerce chief executive Gerard Casey said the news was all good for Whakatane.

"We welcome it and want to congratulate the CEO [of Air Chathams] for his commitment to fly in and out of here.

"We would like to work with them so they can connect with the business community so from a chamber perspective we want to make their life as easy as we can.

"There's great potential for them to provide a quality air service from Whakatane to Auckland.

"The important thing is that people here should be under no illusions that if they want this service then locals need to support that service, especially after the hue and cry after Air New Zealand pulled out.

"We don't know what fees they will be charging, but people need to stump up and support it. I'd hate to see them pull out after six months because people here are not supporting the service."

However, Sunair chief executive Dan Power said he had not heard back from the council regarding his submission to fly the Whakatane-Auckland route.

"I haven't been officially notified.

"We've got to know the business community in the Eastern Bay as a result of the work we've done to canvass support for the Auckland service.

"What we will be doing is bringing Whakatane into our existing network and will be able to transport people to others areas like Hamilton and Napier.

"We will include Whakatane in our schedule later in the year," he said.