Air Chathams have announced they are to cease calling at Napier on their Thursday Chathams-Auckland-Napier-Chathams service. The last flight will operate on the 26th of April 2012.
Air Chathams first introduced a scheduled service to Napier in October 1991 when Beech 99 ZK-CIB was used to offer a twice times weekly scheduled service to Wellington and a weekly service to Napier. Metroliners later operated the Napier service but with the introduction of the Convair in 1996 Napier was dropped.
A Napier service, using the Convair, was reinstated on the 4th of October 2007 when Auckland was added to the airline's destinations. The Convair called into Napier on east bound flights to the Chathams. Hopes that the service would grow never eventauted, and there has been a consistently low volume of passenger and freight traffic through Napier over the years. The airline feels it can no longer sustain it, hence the decision to withdraw the service with the forthcoming winter timetable.
Air Chathams' winter schedule, effective 1 May 2012, features return flights to and from Wellington on Mondays and Fridays, Christchurch on Tuesdays and Auckland on Thursdays.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI know that priority was given to passengers flying out to the Chathams, but did anyone manage to get to fly from Auk to Napier? If so how much did they charge? Very interested to know!!!!
ReplyDelete