31 October 2012

Salt Air Service Ends Today

 
Salt Air flies its last Kerikeri-Whangarei-Auckland air service today. The company started the service in 2008 for business commuters and for tourists to the Bay of Islands and Cape Reinga using Cessna 208B Grand Caravan ZK-MJL and Gippsland Airvan ZK-MAB. Passengers were transported between Noth Shore Airport and the Auckland CBD by shuttle bus using the North Shore busway. In announcing the sale of the service to North Sbore-based Flight Hauraki chief executive Grant Harnish told the Northern Advocate that "he now wants to streamline the operation and concentrate on the tourism-based services. The scheduled services only generate only about 20 per cent of our operational income but take 80 per cent of our time to run. It's been a very successful concept and certainly put us on the map but it's the right time for someone else to pick it up and run with it. "We are a very small company and we don't have the ability to run a base in Auckland which is really needed to take the market to the next stage."
 
Flight Hauraki takes over the service tomorrow.
 
 
Cessna Grand Caravan ZK-MJL taken at North Shore on 26 September 2008. Photo : S Lowe
 
 
I flew on both the Salt Air aircraft - this from the Caravan
 
 
The Gippsland Airvan arriving at North Shore on 23 October 2012. Photo : S Lowe

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