Hastings District councillor Simon Nixon said although the region was already serviced by 50-seat aircraft, it was "really disappointing" Hawke's Bay hadn't featured in the air fare reductions.
"As a very large region, we just seem to endlessly miss out on improvements that would make a real difference. This was an opportunity to improve services to Hawke's Bay and once again we've been missed out."
Air NZ also said it would cut services from Kaitaia, Whakatane and Westport and shut down subsidiary Eagle Airways, which operates a fleet of 19-seat aircraft.
The fleet had the highest cost per seat to operate because the fixed costs of operation are distributed across fewer passengers.
"This has led to Eagle Airways, which operates the 19-seat fleet, losing $1 million per month for the past two years, or the equivalent of $26 per one-way passenger journey."
Hawke's Bay Airport chief executive Nick Story confirmed the airport would be "unaffected" by the fleet changes.
However, Napier MP Stuart Nash said he was concerned about possible job losses for Air NZ's Napier staff, after a pilot told him last week the airline planned to remove its "hub" of staff in Napier and base them in another city.
"A number of staff, if they don't want to move out of Napier, they'll lose their jobs."
He added: "[Air NZ] still have a monopoly, they still charge monopoly fares, and I think it's wrong. This is just a continuing theme of public service being hollowed out of the region."
The Air NZ spokeswoman said it was announced earlier this year that from February next year the airliner would deploy larger 68-seat ATR72 aircraft to operate some services currently operated by 50-seat Q300 aircraft to Hawke's Bay, "increasing seat capacity to the Bay and stimulating tourism demand".
"Deploying larger aircraft where local demand can support the additional seat capacity will allow the airline to continue putting downward pressure on fares as larger aircraft have lower per seat operating costs."
