Toomey finds Zoom offer easy to refuse

By DANIEL RIORDAN aviation writer

Gary Toomey is in no rush to get involved with a Christchurch businessman who says he wants the former Air New Zealand chief executive to run a new national budget airline.

Given the Christchurch man's track record of aviation ventures that never got off the ground, that is probably just as well.

Robin McCarthy placed a small advertisement in the public notices section of the Weekend Herald asking Toomey to get in touch with him.

He described himself as director of Zoom Airways and gave a Christchurch postal box number.

"I don't want to disparage this gentleman, whom I've never heard of, but my initial reaction is it'd be pretty tough to do," said Toomey.

McCarthy said he had been planning for five years to launch a nationwide budget airline that would employ about 160 staff and operate at first with six 50-seater leased twin-jet aircraft flying hourly between main cities.

He said the fares would be cheaper than those of Air New Zealand's budget arm, Freedom Air.

Speaking from his home in Christchurch (which is also the registered address of Zoom), he said nobody except himself had yet put money into the business but he had the support of unnamed investors.

McCarthy acknowledged that it would take millions to set up the kind of operation he planned.

Getting a chief executive would be his first step, and Toomey could be the right man for the job.

Aviation sources in South Canterbury and on the West Coast say they are aware of McCarthy's activities, which appear to involve more litigation than flying.

McCarthy, 46, was described to the Business Herald by several people who have had business dealings with him as a small-time operator with big ideas.

As owner of Glacier Airways (an airline existing only on paper) he is seeking a concession licence to land helicopters on West Coast glaciers.

As a former director of Aviation Activities he battled for four years to gain resource consent for a tourist helicopter operation near Tekapo.

As owner of Virgin Pacific Airways, he planned to fly Russian-American Ilyushin jets to Australia and on to Asia and Western Europe. The scheme foundered.

Virgin Pacific was sued for breach of trademark by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Enterprises. The companies reached a confidential settlement two years ago.

As director of Skyview Helicopters, McCarthy is battling authorities for permission to land helicopters in reserve land on Banks Peninsula.

A long-time resident of the South Canterbury township of Fairlie before moving to Christchurch, McCarthy contested last year's mayoral election, gaining 321 votes.

Toomey, who has stayed in Auckland with his family since resigning from Air New Zealand last October, said yesterday that he was looking for work in New Zealand after choosing last month not to pursue the possibility of work with an Asian airline.

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