Latest news with #SharonBrettkelly
Scoop
29-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
The Headwinds Facing Regional Airlines
Article – RNZ The small plane routes that keep our country connected are becoming increasingly fragile links. Sharon Brettkelly, for The Detail Regional airlines say they're one bird strike away from deep trouble, and cries for support are falling on deaf ears Passenger numbers on regional airlines have never been better, but the costs of running them have never been higher. 'Passenger numbers are through the roof,' says Sounds Air boss Andrew Crawford. But it has had to 'kill off' Taupō and Westport routes and sell an aircraft, and the company is still losing money. 'I wouldn't know one airline that isn't,' he says, citing fuel, labour and maintenance as the three big costs of flying. Add in landing fees, Airways fees and the Civil Aviation Authority more than doubling the passenger service levy. 'This is a critical issue for New Zealand,' says Crawford. 'Between us we're flying around 600 flights a week around regional New Zealand. We don't do that for fun, that's essential services, and I can tell you that a big part of it is healthcare.' Unless something drastic happens Crawford says he can't guarantee the security of other Sounds Air routes. He's not the only one. Air Chathams has dropped Norfolk Island and its Auckland – Whakatāne service is up in the air. Chief operating officer Duane Emeny tells The Detail that flying is a high risk business and conditions are the toughest they've been in his airline's 41 year history. 'You're one bad day from maybe having to pull an engine off an aircraft and send it away because you had a bird strike.' He says his father Craig Emeny, founder and chief executive, has taken the airline through the global financial crisis in the early 2000s, intense competition and even a grounding by the CAA and survived. 'He's had some real challenges in his life and this seems to be trumping a lot of them at the moment,' he says. Both airline bosses say they have had meetings with government ministers about support for the sector but Crawford says after six years he's given up. 'For six years we've been fighting to try and get support, try and get regional aviation in this country recognised and it just falls on deaf ears,' Crawford says. His airline is 'hanging off shareholders' mortgages' but no one is listening. Taupō mayor David Trewavas has a brand new $9 million airport terminal built with a Provincial Growth Fund grant but he can't find another airline willing to take over the Wellington – Taupō route after Sounds Air then Origin Air pulled out. Origin Air lasted no more than six weeks before deciding the service wasn't viable. Trewavas says his council could not have done any more to keep either airline. 'They were looking for a direct investment in the company and I don't think it's the council's business to be a part owner of an aviation company,' he says. But finding a replacement is not easy. Air New Zealand had looked at the route but doesn't have an aircraft available and Air Chathams is only a 'possibility'. 'There's not too many second tier airlines in New Zealand,' he says. Air Chathams' Duane Emeny says the most important step for the government would be to give airlines access to low or no-interest government concessionary loans. 'To be really clear, it is a loan, so it is money that those airlines would absolutely be paying back,' he says. But there's no definite response from the government. In an email to The Detail the Associate Transport Minister James Meager says the government is currently considering a range of options to support regional connectivity and improve competition in the sector but is yet to make any decisions, including on whether access to concessionary loans would be the right thing to do. 'We are committed to supporting existing measures to improve consumer experience flying, such as improving airline on-time performance through regular reporting, technology investments to speed up security queues, and infrastructure investments in our regional airports. 'The Commerce Commission is looking at competition in airports, and I am considering whether there is any benefit in further moves around airfare transparency and further scrutiny on how to reduce the wider costs facing the aviation sector.'
RNZ News
13-05-2025
- Automotive
- RNZ News
Section of Queen Street in Auckland closed after vehicle hits pedestrian
Queen Street. File picture. Photo: Sharon Brettkelly A person has been transported to Auckland Hospital in a moderate condition after a crash on Queen Street. Police say they were notified of the collision between a vehicle and pedestrian at about 1.30pm. A section of Queen Street, northbound, between Mayoral Drive to Wakefield Street has been closed. Auckland Transport are asking the public to avoid this area or expect delays with diversions in place affecting all traffic, including bus services. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Scoop
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Iwi-Crown Relations On The Line After Scathing Audit
Article – RNZ Iwi and hap are legally entitled to their Treaty Settlements, but a new report from the auditor general has found widespread breaches by the Crown . Sharon Brettkelly, for The Detail A new report from the auditor general found that every public agency audited had difficulties meeting at least some of their Treaty settlement obligations to iwi and hapū. The auditor general has put public agencies on notice to do a better job of ensuring iwi and hapū get what they are legally entitled to in their Treaty settlements, after a scathing report on their performance. The agencies, from local councils to government departments and state owned enterprises, have been given a year by auditor general John Ryan after his audit showed that many public organisations are failing to fulfill their commitments on Treaty settlements. Ryan says that is unacceptable and he warns that the public sector and the government face a greater risk of legal action because they have failed to fulfill the settlements. He tells The Detail why this audit is one of the most significant projects in his time as auditor general. 'It's significant financially, it's significant constitutionally, and it's a big accountability question for the public sector to deliver against its commitments. And it's about resetting its relationship with iwi and hapū,' he says. Many people think that when a Treaty claim is settled with an iwi or hapū and the government has made its apology, it's done and dusted, but the settlements are actually 'massively complicated and span a number of years'. The report makes it clear that since Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed, the Crown has not met its obligations. It says that about 150 public organisations have about 12,000 individual contractual and legal commitments under about 80 settlements, with about 70 groups. To date, $2.738 billion of financial and commercial redress has been transferred through settlements. The public organisations that it audited are responsible for 70 percent of individual commitments – more than 8000. The audit found that every one of the public organisations had difficulties meeting some of their commitments as the settlements intended. 'The types of things we've seen and pointed out in our report is that the government may have committed to relationship agreements and those are not being put in place [and] to letters of introduction which have not been put in place. 'But probably the more significant ones we talk to are things like rights of first refusal on particular properties where either they were not put in place and they should have been. Some properties we saw had been sold even though they should have had a right of first refusal given to iwi. 'We also saw Crown forest licensed land not being transferred within the timeframe that was given, which is five years.' Ryan says the public sector started late on the transfer and did not meet the five-year windows. Once the deed is signed, a new phase begins, says RNZ Māori news editor Taiha Molyneux. 'It shifts iwi from one phase of navigating a system that wasn't created or designed by them to another phase of navigating a whole other series of processes, policies, acts to start progressing forward.' Many of the problems highlighted in the report stem from the leadership of the government agencies, most of whom are non-Māori and do not have key performance indicators (KPIs) or responsibilities that align with meeting the requirements of the Treaty settlements. Molyneux says iwi and hapū leaders are pessimistic about the system changing, but the younger Māori are giving them hope. 'There is a much more powerful voice coming up because there's these young ones that are coming up through the kōhanga that are confident in te ao Māori and te ao Pākehā that are using tools to reach more people. That's definitely something I haven't seen of this magnitude before.'
