Ready for take off
One small flight for a nine-seater plane, one giant leap for a Blenheim-based airline.
Sounds Air is launching its first flight from Blenheim to Christchurch after Air New Zealand decided to cancel its service between the two South Island centres.
A Pilatus PC-12 aircraft will fly between Blenheim and Christchurch every day except Saturday, with the first flight leaving on Monday.
Sounds Air managing director Andrew Crawford said the route was an important one, linking Marlborough to the South Island’s biggest city.
Most of the passengers would be business travellers wanting daily return flights, but the service would also take hundreds of Marlborough patients to Christchurch for medical appointments.
The Nelson Marlborough District Health Board indicated a direct link to Christchurch was vital, Crawford said.
The 50-minute flight, booked online, would cost $199.
There were plenty of seats still available for the first week of flights between Christchurch and Blenheim, but the second week was rapidly filling up, Crawford said.
‘‘Once word gets around that the option is there, it will pick up quickly.’’
Air New Zealand reorganised its regional routes last year, as it struggled to fill its 50-seat aircraft in some regions.
Their last flight between Christchurch and Blenheim was on Sunday, a route the airline described as a ‘‘loss-making service’’.
Air New Zealand also dropped flights between Wellington and Taupo, and Wellington and Westport.
Sounds Air picked up all three routes, and added flights between Blenheim and Napier, a link frequented by wine lovers and people in the wine industry.
The new routes had so far been a success, and Crawford was pleased with the demand, he said.
Passengers hesitant to fly on a smaller plane were quickly converted after a flight, Crawford said.
Instead of just procedural training, Sounds Air pilots were trained to fly to the varied conditions of Cook Strait and the Marlborough Sounds.
‘‘We have a very experienced team of pilots, though Blenheim to Christchurch should be not quite as challenging as Blenheim to Wellington,’’ Crawford said.
The airline was not considering any new routes in the immediate future, he said.
A subdivision was being developed by Sounds Air at Koromiko, south of Picton, next to the Koromiko Airfield.
The Marlborough Sounds Airpark required buyers to build a house and a pre-designed hangar on their section, though they were not required to own a plane.
Two hangars had been completed and accompanying houses ‘‘pegged out’’, Crawford said.
Sounds Air was started by Cliff and Diane Marchant in 1986 to provide affordable transport around the Marlborough Sounds.
The airline had one plane and flew 14,000 passengers a year when Crawford joined the company in 2003.
It now had nine planes and expected to transport 100,000 passengers in 2016.
The airline employed more than 60 staff, including 24 pilots, most of whom were based in Wellington.