Jet Charters NZ and NZ Jet launch partnership as private flying grows

Rowan Brookfield, charter director at Jet Charters NZ and Sofia Ambler, director of NZ Jet. Photos / Supplied

Two of the country’s main private jet operators will pool their fleets.

Jet Charters NZ and NZ Jet have agreed to a strategic operational partnership aimed at expanding their private jet services across New Zealand and the Pacific.

They say the partnership will allow them to better serve an “evolving market” showing signs of recovery after a flat patch last year.

The agreement has been characterised as a way of turning friendly rivalry into friendly co-operation to better utilise the two fleets.

It is not an ownership deal, and both will retain their existing corporate structure.

Jet Charters NZ operates from Napier as part of Skyline Aviation, an air ambulance and private air charter operator.

Its fleet includes a Cessna Citation Sovereign with nine seats - the biggest among the two companies, a Nextant Aerospace 400XTI (seven seats), and two Cessna C150 Mustang aircraft (four seats).

NZ Jet, based in Ardmore and owned by Heletranz Helicopters co-owners John and Sofia Ambler, operates two Cessna Citation 560 models each with seats for eight passengers. These aircraft are capable of flying internationally, with routes including the east coast of Australia and the Pacific Islands.

Rowan Brookfield, charter director at Jet Charters NZ, said the two firms would be able to offer consistent levels of service.

“It’s about growing the capability of assets available with a broader range right through from a four-seater to an eight-to-nine-seater.

“It’s that footprint and offering and yeah, we’ve worked with them [NZ Jet] for a couple of years now and it got to the point where we really needed to come to an agreement of some sort.”

As part of the newly formed partnership, the companies operate charter bases at Auckland Airport, Ardmore, Queenstown, and Napier where Skyline is based.

Sofia Ambler said the agreement would build a more diverse fleet and greater flexibility for clients.

“The surge in demand, driven by seasonal shifts and recent disruptions in commercial airline schedules, underscores the importance of this collaboration in meeting the evolving needs of our passengers,” she said.

The two firms could feed passengers on to each other’s network.

She said there were signs of increased demand for private travel.

The improvement in the domestic market coincided with falling interest rates in the second half of last year.

‘We’ve had seasonality come into it with more international in December, January, and February.”

She said the North American and European markets were looking strong in the short term, but longer-term demand was hard to assess.

“Unless they’re a big group doing many legs that may book six to 12 months in advance, most of the jobs we have come within one to three months,” she said.

Jet Charters NZ is part of Skyline Healthcare Group which started in the late 1980s but had grown rapidly in the last decade with the introduction of jets to its fleet.

Brookfield said the jet charter business had enjoyed its best summer in its history last year and was also busy this high season with most demand from North America, Europe, and growth driven by Indian visitors and the recovery of the Chinese market.

More Kiwis were also flying private, especially for multi-stop work trips to smaller centres in New Zealand in order to save time that would be lost if making up itineraries, he said.

Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.