The Great New Zealand Road Trip: The little airline that could – the rise and rise of Sounds Air

From humble beginnings with just one plane, a small airline has been transformed into a critical regional New Zealand lifeline, with more than 320 flights a week. Shayne Currie charts the rise of Sounds Air, even as it and the aviation industry face a turbulent economy and pared-back routes.

Andrew Crawford draws on a flat white coffee at a Blenheim cafe’s outdoor table when one of his planes flies overhead.

Without looking up, the Sounds Air managing director says: “There’s one now – that’s a PC12,″ referring to a nine-seat Pilatus, one of the airline’s 10-strong fleet of aircraft.

He taps into his phone – this flight is landing from Christchurch.

“Oh, it wasn’t on time,” he says in mock disappointment, pausing before adding: “It departed three minutes early!”

A few minutes later, another Sounds Air plane buzzes overhead. This one’s a minute early.

More than two decades ago, Crawford was hearing other things.

He remembers being at a Christmas party when he first arrived in Blenheim in 2003 and overhearing guests talking about “White Knuckles Airlines”.

He wondered what on earth they were referring to, before quickly realising it was the company in which he’d just taken an ownership share.

Back then, Soundsair (as it was branded at the time) flew just one plane on a single route – Wellington-Picton – and while it was perfectly safe, passengers sometimes endured turbulent arrivals and departures from the small airfield surrounded by hills at Koromiko, near Picton.

“I remember years ago, it must have been early in the piece, the plane landed and this woman got out sobbing and kissing the ground.”

He knew instantly: “This has got to stop.”

He sorted his priorities quickly: “Provided a service, painted the planes the same colour, put on uniforms and didn’t go to Picton regardless of conditions,” he recalls.

“Now with Picton, if the weather’s crap, we go to Blenheim where we have a shuttle that picks up people. People don’t want to get off a plane and kiss the ground.”

Twenty-one years on, Sounds Air (as it is now branded) has been transformed. It is a regional New Zealand success story.

A workforce of six in 2003 has grown to 85 today. The once single-plane, single-route operation now has 10 aircraft flying to nine destinations, generally in and around central New Zealand, although it is about to cut two of those routes at the end of the year – Wellington-Taupō and Wellington-Westport.

The routes have just become too uneconomic in the face of the impact of fuel and engine costs and the low dollar, says Crawford.

While he concedes this has been the toughest period since he’s been at the airline, he’s also aware it’s cyclical.

The airline’s intention now is to focus on the consolidated seven routes (which will still involve more than 320 flights a week) and perhaps sell a couple of aircraft to reduce debt – putting the company in the best possible position for a broader economic recovery.

There are still positive signs. They’re flying more people than ever – about 120,000 this year, compared with 7500 back in 2003 – and Crawford hasn’t lost the sense of purpose that comes with operating in regional New Zealand.

“A big part of these sectors is for healthcare,” he says.

Places like Blenheim and Wānaka don’t have the treatment facilities and care that bigger cities like Wellington and Christchurch offer.

“For Blenheim to Christchurch, I would say well over a third [of passengers] are flying for healthcare and Wānaka is the same. Wānaka has got a retiring population, and there’s very limited healthcare in Central Otago.”

But despite load factors being strong, margins are at rock bottom.

One of Sounds Air's 10-strong fleet.

While Sounds Air’s one-way fares have gone up by an average of $60-$70 in the past year, it was still “nowhere near enough”.

Nevertheless, there were no plans for more fare increases. “People are paying a lot of money – way more than I’d like to be charging. But I can tell you that we’re not gouging it.”

The perception of aviation being a glamorous industry where people are rolling in money is wrong, he says.

“Now the margins are way past tight, but that’s all aviation. There are not many airlines in the world that are any different.”

Crawford, who stands a giant 1.98m (6′ 6″) and speaks matter-of-factly, came to the airline after a career in large-scale diesel generator installations and hire. For 10 years he was the general manager of Power Hire in Auckland.

He has a dry sense of humour: “What I should have done was just bought real estate at Māngere Bridge,” he laughs.

He appears to be an airline chief executive more in the Richard Branson than Christopher Luxon mould.

I ask him if he loves it. “I love what we do and when you step back and look at this business and the staff and how passionate they are, it’s fantastic, I’m very proud of it. But it’s a tough environment. Love is a tough word to use but I’m very proud of it.”

Part of his recent frustration, and that of other regional air operators, has been their inability to draw upon the Government’s regional infrastructure fund (and the previous administration’s provincial growth fund) for support.

“I think they’re looking for dams and roads,” says Crawford. “But you can’t have dams and roads without connectivity. We think we’re critical in regional New Zealand. We are.”

Regional Development Minister Shane Jones has previously praised regional airlines for their contribution to productivity and improved resilience.

“I have no desire to get into a war of words with the owners of regional airlines,” he told RNZ last month.

Air New Zealand, he said, was given support because it was effectively government-owned.

He told RNZ he would ask officials to consider the merits of a fund similar to the $30 million earmarked to help support coastal shipping services.

Sounds Air is cutting two routes in the face of rising costs.

On Wednesday afternoon, with three of his aircraft passing through Blenheim Airport, Crawford chatted amiably with his pilots and staff.

Part of the beauty of an operation like Sounds Air is its personal connection – including with passengers. You can be literally in the seat behind the pilot.

Jordan Williams, 25, has been a pilot with the airline for seven months, mainly flying the Wellington-Blenheim route in the Cessna Caravan.

“We have, for the most part, very regular customers who we see every day, we know their names. It’s a little bit more involved than probably other operators where there’s a cockpit door. We get to interact with customers, which obviously makes it quite a bit different.”

He’s had a passion for flying since high school. “It doesn’t feel like a job, to be honest.”

Crawford says the on-time reliability of Sounds Air flights has led to a loyal base of customers.

That and the new approach to service and a rebrand all those years ago.

“We got the orange colour and an albatross on the tail. Someone said, ‘Oh isn’t it an albatross around your neck?’ But there’s no better flying bird than the albatross.

“We really did embrace the brand and the service concept of getting people from A to B with the minimum of fuss.”

Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor.