Air Chathams (3C, Chatham Island) is showing "a lot of interest" in taking over the Paraparaumu-Auckland International route following the termination of this service by Air New Zealand on April 3, 2018, the Kāpiti Coast Chamber of Commerce has said in a statement.
According to the ch-aviation capacity module, the route is currently served 12x weekly by Air Nelson on behalf of the New Zealandic flag carrier, using Dash 8-300 equipment.
The Kāpiti Coast Chamber of Commerce met with key stakeholders, including Air Chathams representatives, on March 20 to discuss the future of the key service out of the city located in the southern part of New Zealand's Northern Island.
The establishment of the new operator is expected to take between two and three months due to regulatory requirements. This means that Paraparaumu will lack a service to the country's largest city until the third quarter of 2018. The local authority, however, expects to be able to announce details by the time Air New Zealand leaves the airport.
Besides Air New Zealand, Paraparaumu is also served by Sounds Air which flies out of the airport to each of Nelson, NZ and Blenheim using Cessna (single turboprop) 208B equipment.
For its part, Air Chathams currently operates flights out of Auckland to each of Whakatane, Chatham Island, and Whanganui. It also serves the Chatham Island out of Wellington and Christchurch.
