Kiwi stops Queenstown flights, looks to other regions

Kiwi Regional Airlines stops Queenstown flights, looks to other regions in future

One month after commencing flights between Dunedin and Queenstown, Kiwi Regional Airlines has announced it will be ceasing these services, with the last flight on 30th November 2015.

Kiwi's CEO, Ewan Wilson, said "the services to Queenstown have been extremely challenging for our company, with a combination of several weather-related cancellations and low passenger bookings making it unsustainable for this service to continue."

"This is in marked contrast to our services between Dunedin, Nelson and Hamilton, which have all exceeded expectations for the first month of operation, leading us to look at new regions for expansion into in the future, such as Hawkes Bay, Bay of Plenty and Taranaki."

"Like most private companies in New Zealand, Kiwi operates without any Government or overseas backing, and cannot afford to subsidise operations that are not financially viable."

"We made a commercial decision to end the scheduled Queenstown flights before they affected the performance of our whole company, but we have left it open to return to the city at a future date, for charters or potential alternative scheduled services."

"All passengers who have booked on Queenstown flights after 30th November will be offered full refunds or other alternative arrangements by Kiwi, and are being contacted this week."

"Staff and contractors affected by this decision have already been contacted by company management."

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