View from Barrier Air flight from Kaitaia to Auckland. Photo / Kohu Inch
View from Barrier Air flight from Kaitaia to Auckland. Photo / Kohu Inch
Barrier Air is expanding to meet growing demand and is about to add its latest aircraft after what its boss says will be an "incredible journey" from France to Auckland.
The Cessna Grand Caravan will hopscotch its way from Europe, through the Middle East, Asia, touch down three times inAustralia, then stop to top up on Norfolk Island before heading for Auckland.
The multi-stop odyssey will take about a fortnight and if flown in a straight line would cover 18,000km. The route taken will add to that for the specialist ferry pilot and one of the airline's own pilots.
Barrier Air's chief executive Grant Bacon said the secondhand plane has low flight hours and is worth about $3 million. It will be the fifth of that aircraft type in the airline's fleet when it arrives this year, in time for more flying over summer as domestic demand recovers from last year's lockdowns and international tourists return.
Caravans have a range of 1100 nautical miles (2037km) and ones bought previously in the United States had been fitted with special fuel bladders to make it across the Pacific.
Finding the planes is getting more difficult as the airline has specific technical requirements such as de-icing equipment and there was strong demand for them, including from a growing number of private owners who preferred their own aircraft during the pandemic.
"They are incredibly versatile, have a jet turbine engine, the latest navigation and safety systems, 14 seats and a 1.3 tonne payload," said Bacon.
"Demand has skyrocketed. There's a lot of airlines buying them and private people are actually buying them as well because they don't want to travel with airlines, so it's made finding them even harder."
Barrier Air is a New Zealand airline that was established in 1983 by Jim Bergman as Great Barrier Airlines. It is privately owned by Peter Griffiths, John Leggott and Graham Reynolds.
Bacon said the airline had been adding Caravans at the rate of one a year since 2017 and having a one-type aircraft fleet was good for economics. The sole pilots require extra flight hours before they can carry passengers.
Aircraft were funded through Kiwibank loans and the airline had paid off the first of its Caravans and owned it outright.
Grant Bacon, chief executive of Barrier Air. Photo / Supplied
During the pandemic, it hasn't been easy operating the airline, which runs services between Auckland, Great Barrier Island, Kaitaia and Whitianga.
"We've come from a period where we had an old fleet, and pre-Covid we were building the business from scratch. And that was quite challenging as we went into Covid," said Bacon.
"Some of the hardest things have been the confidence gets eroded when a lockdown occurs; you go from one minute doing really well and then all of a sudden it drops by 90 per cent."
The airline is based in Auckland - hit hardest by lockdowns during the past two years - but when people could fly, the demand was very strong.
"We're just starting to see overseas bookings, which is promising. We are very focused on trying to target that market across our routes that we service. Great Barrier typically is a very Kiwi destination. A lot of international tourists don't know about it."
Bacon said the Barrier could handle only a limited number of visitors. "We are mindful of that fact. It's not the type of place that you can flood with international tourism. We don't tend to promote it that much."
A Barrier Air Cessna Grand Caravan Photo / Supplied
The airline flies to Great Barrier Island between six and 12 times a day from Auckland Airport and up to twice a day from North Shore, and to Whitianga twice a day from Auckland, but this was increasing to three flights over summer.
"We are proud of how our Kaitaia service has operated and grown," said Bacon. "We are now operating 22 sectors per week to the far north town and are projecting to carry 20,000 passengers this financial year."
A new Tauranga-Great Barrier service would start this year.
The airline has also opened a new operations centre at Auckland Airport and has more than 40 staff, with the intention to employ 10 more in time for the busy summer season.
Bacon said inflation was the strongest headwind at the moment.
"We were paying something like 80 cents a litre early last year and now we're paying $2.20 And it's just phenomenal."
The airline had imposed a 6 per cent fuel surcharge but this has had to double in the past few weeks. "We're hoping it's a short term thing, but we're at the mercy of things that are out of our control."
