Hamilton Airport is slowly getting back to pre-Covid levels. Photo / Hamilton and Waikato Tourism
Hamilton Airport is slowly getting back to pre-Covid levels. Photo / Hamilton and Waikato Tourism
Hamilton Airport CEO Mark Morgan has thrown his support behind the introduction of a transtasman bubble, as the airport slowly moves back to pre-Covid-19 levels.
Morgan said the airport's main aim was to keep customer and community safety at the forefront of their thinking, but they were keen on welcoming more travellers to the region, and New Zealand in general.
"Air New Zealand are now able to sell the seats they were previously unable to sell due to physical distancing requirements, and flights can return to full load capacity.
"We are focused on supporting the airline's full network recovery, and this includes the introduction of a transtasman bubble. Customer and community safety are at the forefront of our thinking of course, but when the time comes, we look forward to welcoming travellers from within that bubble."
The support comes with backing from the Waikato Chamber of Commerce which is also supporting the calls to begin regular flights between Canberra and Wellington as the first step to popping the transtasman bubble.
A joint proposal from the Chambers of Commerce in Australia and New Zealand presented to both governments proposes starting early, testing carefully, and progressively opening the Australia-New Zealand market to air travel with regular flights between the two nation's capital cities.
Waikato Chamber executive director Don Good echoed Auckland Business Chamber CEO Michael Barnett's sentiments that this plan would hopefully give both consumers and governments confidence that we can get back to business.
Waikato Chamber of Commerce executive director Don Good. Photo / Supplied
"We need to help the survival, recovery and sustainability of our vital tourism, export, event and travel sector. We feed each other and we need each other's dollars urgently to help with economic recovery.
"New Zealand needs Australians back here as our single most important visitors, supporting our tourism sector, our cafes and events decimated by the enforced shutdown," Good said.
"We see the test flights as symbolic between the two nations' capital and sister cities but critical to demonstrating that there are processes and safeguards in place to keep Covid-19 at bay and allow the free movement of people.
"Following the successful implementation of flights between Canberra and Wellington over a number of weeks, and the thorough evaluation of the systems and processes in place, we believe that further destinations around the Australian and New Zealand network could open.
"We need to not just say we are open for business but be able to roll out the welcome mat."
Morgan said that Hamilton's domestic flying routes are beginning to pick up with the country now having no restrictions on physical distancing.
"As the country recovered, and Air New Zealand introduced more services to the schedule, passenger activity noticeably picked up," Morgan said.
"The Christchurch and Wellington services are proving equally popular, with some flights in alert level 2 reaching physical distancing capacity. We are very much looking forward to the return of the Palmerston North service too, when resources and demand allow.
"The general mood of travellers is positive, and we are as happy to welcome them back as they are to have the opportunity to travel again. The schedule has steadily increased to where it is currently back to approximately 30 per cent pre-Covid level.
"The upcoming July school holidays, and the removal of restrictions on the numbers attending mass gatherings, means we will very likely see an increase in passenger activity."
