Jetstar flying in to assess business case

Hawke's Bay Airport may be getting Jetstar flights.

Jetstar New Zealand executives will be in Napier today assessing whether Hawke's Bay Airport will be added to the cut-price airline's regional destinations.

Napier Mayor Bill Dalton confirmed he, Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule and their councils' chief executives will present a business plan to the Jetstar team, including Jetstar New Zealand head and former Air Nelson general manager Grant Kerr.

Mr Kerr, making a tour of seven provincial centres vying to be among for New Zealand domestic destination, will also meet the Hawke's Bay Airport board, Chamber of Commerce and Business Hub representatives, and heads of Treaty of Waitangi Napier area settlement group Mana Ahuriri.

Mr Dalton, who had previously been told Napier would be a strong prospect if Jetstar could secure the aircraft it is now acquiring from Qantas regional service in Australia, says he's confident that, in the business case, Jetstar will see the growth prospects the flyer is looking for.

"We can show them the work we are doing to grow the Hawke's Bay economy," he said. "It's looking very positive. We don't know when they will announce it, but I feel very confident."

During a visit to Nelson, where Air New Zealand and four small airlines are already in the market, Mr Kerr said establishing which regions would produce the highest growth in travel would be the key issue in the decision. The airline aims to increase the number of travellers.

A Hawke's Bay Supports Jetstar flights Facebook page had last night logged more than 8000 likes but was dragging behind such places as Palmerston North and New Plymouth, which each had well over 11,000 likes on similar pages.

The other centres in contention are Rotorua, Hamilton, Nelson and Invercargill.

Jetstar is putting five 50-seat Q300 turbo-prop planes on the routes in a service expected to start by December and Qantas is adding thousands of extra seats to its transtasman services in early spring.

It will operate 44 additional services across the Tasman from September 16 to October 11 to meet extra demand.

According to latest statistics, Hawke's Bay Airport is the 8th-busiest airport in New Zealand but the third-busiest of the seven being investigated by Jetstar, having serviced 456,672 passengers in 12 months, according to 2014 statistics. Nelson, at 6th, had more than 760,000 a year.