Barrier Air will be making a flying visit next week for a meet and greet with members of the Mercury Bay Aero Club, the owner of the Whitianga airfield, ahead of its daily service to Auckland Airport, which has been confirmed to start on Thursday, 16 December. The company has announced that there will be two flights daily, except Tuesday and Saturday when there will be just one. Although it is still six months until the service is launched, there have already been a number of bookings. All that remains to be done is fit out an office, arrange signage and hire two ground staff in the next few months. According to its new schedule, the first flight from Auckland to Whitianga will leave at 7:00am and return from Whitianga at 8:00am, while the afternoon service will leave Auckland at 3:30pm, returning at 4:30pm. Fares will be $79, or $89 including 20kg of luggage, while there will be a $10 discount for children. In order to get up and running with its 14-seater Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft, Barrier Air had to get Airways New Zealand to design an Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) navigation system for the approach into the Whitianga airfield. The company’s CEO, Grant Bacon, said it was very similar to car navigation systems - except designed for planes - with waypoints and altitude restrictions which the pilot would follow down to the runway. “It essentially means that we can fly in virtually any weather, which obviously gives the service a lot of reliability,” Grant said. “It was quite a big investment for us, north of $30,000, to set it up. It shows our commitment to the route.” The only limitation on the schedule will be having to fly in daylight hours as there are no runway lights at the Whitianga airfield. Grant said they had a lot of feedback following an article in The Informer about the launch of the service a couple months back and had adjusted their scheduling accordingly. “Some people wanted to be able to go on day trips in either direction, returning home the same day,” he said. “We also got some feedback from people wanting to have connections to early flights from Auckland. The feedback has been excellent. People are really happy we are doing it in the first place, but more so the fact that it is being run as a reliable service with IFR, and also the feedback has been great on the pricing.” The company was also looking at doing packages for accommodation and local attractions. “I think it is going to work very well,” Grant said.
Source : https://www.theinformer.co.nz/detail.aspx?cid=4735&fbclid
Barrier Air has been listening to the market who wanted an earlier departure out of WTZ and so the morning weekday flights have been retimed 30 minutes earlier... The article is not quite right, two flights on Tuesday not one and one flight on Sundays, not two. The schedule will be as follows;
Monday - Friday
0700 and 1530 Auckland - Whitianga
0800 and 1630 Whitianga - Auckland
Saturday
0730 Auckland - Whitianga
0830 Whitianga - Auckland
Sunday
1530 Auckland - Whitianga
1630 Whitianga - Auckland
Steve... Are they actually listing and engaging with people who are actually going to fly with them... Are they offering better times than what Origin air are offering between The Tron and Palmy Steve....??!!
ReplyDeleteSurely not a little "island-time" airliner..... You reckon Barrier should get and place a J32 between Ham and Palmy just to make a point and show Origin how to cater for the business community..
Really excited with this growth that Barrier are going through... Since the clipping of Eagles wings and the vacuum created by a truly regional airline....
I have to say that Air Chats, Barrier and to an extent Sounds....
Air Chats have had a lot fall into their hands with their well placed base and sizable communities and the current twin prop pressurized aircraft at their disposal at the times..
Sounds Air had only the option of what I would describe as the "long and thin routes" and not much demand for something a little bigger (Just a shame they are technically competing with Air NZ on the Taupo route regarding better pricing albeit through Auckland) If Air NZ pulled out and it was left to Air Chats... I definitely feel Sounds could invest in something bigger and grow Taupo along with utilization on the BHE-CHC-WKA route...
These guys are definitely the contenders for.... Cant quite find the right words to use... I mean Barrier had that little hiccup with the early years of Kaitia and the general management and the harshly mixed fleet and a few serious incidences
But they have certainly gone strength to strength and really showed just how well a small "Island" airline with a really good management team, listening and providing a service for the clientele and with the right aircraft can really turn things around in a heart beat...
Just think if the local community at Whitianga rallied around and got that strip sealed with lighting and possibilities of Barrier connecting/linking that western side of the Coro with Thames being a serious contender/hub for that population... I mean it is a drive not exactly for the faint hearted over that hill (winter/rain) and there is a population to work with along the greater Hauraki region...
Qn 1 "Are they actually listing and engaging with people who are actually going to fly with them?" Yes they are, or so it seems to me. They are tapping into the Auckland market as well... They have also amended the morning flight out to operate 30 minutes earlier which is a better option.
DeleteI really feel that they have really found that key ingredient and it's all about doing the homework right, measure twice, cut once, do it correct the first time and not trying to be flash and technical over something that shouldn't be
DeleteQn 2 "You reckon Barrier should get and place a J32 between Ham and Palmy just to make a point and show Origin how to cater for the business community?" No - not room on the HLZ-PMR run for two flights - Originair are doing much better now they have a better timetable. They could do even much better. There is a lot of business traffic between HLZ and PMR.
ReplyDeleteHaha, no I know that mate...
DeleteIt was more of a jab/piss take at Origin and sort of going on from your 'less than impressed' comments made in the past regarding those issues that they had and the initially poor flight times they offered esp for the likes of you that want to do same day business etc.
It was more of a...
Barrier's professional approach to things and how they have been conducting themselves within that corporate scope, that they would have showed Origin up and how to do things 'properly and "take over" the route. I mean, Barrier would have got it right the first time if it was their route...
Qn 3 "I definitely feel Sounds could invest in something bigger and grow Taupo along with utilization on the BHE-CHC-WKA route..." Will WLG-TUO ever grow? It was never a real winner for NZ... BHE-CHC certainly could do with something bigger and Wanaka will I suspect grow... Issue I understand there is the winter inversion layer. However the move to a twin turboprop brings with it lots of overheads. Not enough with just one route that is ready for it.
ReplyDeleteI would love to have been the fly on the wall during those meetings regarding those days early on when they were seriously looking at those B1900s and what was the actual point where they decided to just stick with the PC12's and the C208's...
DeleteTaupo, you could say has the entire season's worth of cliental Spring/Autumn is brilliant for tramps (Tongorairo) Summer this place swells with people especially those many Wellingtonians who own holiday homes here and the Winter with the thermal resorts and the ski fields not far away....
The days of the 3x Wellington-Taupo B1900s/Metros flights to Taupo were also some of the most priciest airfares in the country.
I feel that the likes of these airlines need to offer cut prices though through fares' not charge basically a fare for each point, and really try to grow that through traffic... I mean... Make it affordable and attractive to flight from Taupo to Blenheim or Westport and the likes... Than flying Air NZ via a 2 hour stop in Auckland
Qn 4 "Barrier have certainly gone strength to strength and really showed just how well a small "Island" airline with a really good management team, listening and providing a service for the clientele and with the right aircraft can really turn things around in a heart beat...
ReplyDeleteJust think if the local community at Whitianga rallied around and got that strip sealed with lighting and possibilities of Barrier connecting/linking that western side of the Coro with Thames being a serious contender/hub for that population... I mean it is a drive not exactly for the faint hearted over that hill (winter/rain) and there is a population to work with along the greater Hauraki region..." Absolutely true. The new management and move to turbo changed Barrier Air. Whitianga will do well with on-going road congestion into AKL... the car is the competition. Runway lights may well be a possibility one day. Thames will never happen. The market is AKL
I was meaning a separate flight from Auckland to Thames and connecting/linking that Hauraki/Matamata area to Auckland...
DeleteI mean, there is a sizable population that visits/holiday homes along that western side that stretches down south to the likes of Paeroa and Matamata. There is no flights to Hamilton to Auckland... There could be some potential in that area and as I said... Whitianga has that whole eastern side of the Coros stitched up, and with potential to really grow. The same could be said with the western side. It's not a straight forward road (pardon the pun) over the hill, so there should be no fear of cannibalizing the Coromandel route as a whole, but potential to seriously grow/complement both sides of the ranges