Sunair News

 

Sunair has been in the news a bit this week having restored its services from Gisborne (and/or Napier) to Hamilton and also from Hamilton to Whangarei. The first flight Gisborne-Hamilton flights was flown on Monday 29 April 2024 by Paul Corrin in Piper Aztec ZK-DIR. ZK-DIR also flew the first reinstated Hamilton-Whangarei service on 1 May 2024. 

Paul Corrin with his passenger and Piper Aztec at Hamilton on 29 April 2024 after the arrival of thr reinstated service from Gisborne and Napier

A very interesting article also appeared on Stuff with a hint of new routes and new aircraft. Another watch this space moment...

A small Tauranga-based airline is defying a sluggish economy by expanding into new routes, with more destinations and aircraft on the horizon. Sunair began flying passengers into Hamilton Airport this week, linking up the Waikato with Napier, Whangārei and Gisborne every weekday. The airline, which started in 1985, currently has a fleet of nine Piper Aztec aircraft which also fly to Great Barrier, Wairoa, and Whitianga, as well as its home base in Tauranga. It has three other Cessna 172s used for flight training and sightseeing trips. Owner Dan Power told Stuff Travel the airline is going into an “expansion mode. We see opportunities at the moment, albeit in a technical recession and costs are high. In some ways it’s not the right time, but the opportunities are there as I see it.” Power said he wouldn’t call the expansion “brave”: “We’re optimistic it will be financially successful.” Sunair had previously flown into Hamilton as freight only but that finished some years ago. But Power said the time was right to add a passenger service now. “Hamilton and the surrounding area of Waikato is going through immense growth. Hamilton is now the fastest growing city in New Zealand. You only have to drive through it to see its booming really.” Power said there had been months of negotiations with Hamilton Airport, who had been “very responsive” to Sunair’s arrival. “Their airport, in my view, is somewhat underutilised and there’s certainly room for expansion of that airport and we want to be part of that.” Sunair joins Air New Zealand and Originair in using Hamilton, and the airport’s group chief executive Mark Morgan welcomed the new arrival. “It’s really encouraging that we’re able to see a regional airline that’s prepared to expand its services in what is a tough economic trading environment,” Morgan told the Waikato Times. “And I think that speaks a lot to the confidence of Sunair and to the fact that this region, the Waikato region, is growing in size, and businesses can take opportunities in this region that they would not ordinarily have done.” Currently one-way flights from Hamilton to its three destinations are $390 per person, and Power said Sunair’s primary market is business people “because our airplanes are smaller, our operating costs per seat are high. We can’t really get our airfares down to low levels that the leisure market expects”. Power said he has eyes on other routes as well “once we build our Hamilton-Tauranga connections with Eastland”, along with more aircraft early in 2025. 

Source and photos @ : https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/350262011/sunair-new-zealands-big-little-airline-spreading-its-wings