Barrier Air’s Cessna Grand Caravan on the tarmac at Bay of Islands Airport in Kerikeri.
Photo: Peter de Graaf/RNZ

Competition has arrived on Northland’s busiest air route with the inaugural Barrier Air flight from Auckland to Kerikeri landing at Bay of Islands Airport just before 7pm on Sunday.

The first passenger off the plane was Kerikeri man Chris Hoffman, who was delighted to be able to choose which airline to fly with for the first time in many years.

“The flight was excellent. I chose Barrier Air to support a new airline, and more competition coming in to Kerikeri. I fly with them out of Kaitāia quite regularly so it’s great to see them having a new location here in the North,” Hoffmann said.

The first passenger off Barrier Air’s inaugural flight to Kerikeri, Chris Hoffmann, receives a warm welcome at Bay of Islands Airport.
Photo: Peter de Graaf/RNZ

Another passenger said she’d planned to drive to Kerikeri to visit her best friend, but changed her mind when she discovered she could fly with Barrier Air for a third the cost of flying with Air New Zealand.

After overnighting at Kerikeri the airline’s 12-seater Cessna Grand Caravan will make two return trips Monday; departing Kerikeri at 6.45am and 1.45pm, and Auckland at 12.30pm and 5.15pm.

Initially Barrier Air will operate 11 return flights a week, but could ramp that up if there’s enough demand.

The airline already flies 15,000 passengers a year between Kaitāia and Auckland – a route it took on when Air New Zealand pulled out of the country’s northernmost airport in 2015 – but the Kerikeri service is the first time it has gone head-to-head with the national carrier in Northland.

Also on the inaugural flight to Kerikeri was Barrier Air general manager Karen Pascoe, who was “very excited” to be increasing the links between Northland and Auckland.

“The inaugural flight was fully booked. The response has been great, and our social media has been going off. It’s very encouraging,” she said.

“The reason for us coming to Kerikeri was our customers asking us to give it a go, and open it up more for Northland. It’s giving folk choices to get up to Northland on holiday, or down to Auckland to see whānau or travel overseas.”

Barrier Air crew members, from left, Susan Wintraecken and Antonia Cathcart, and general manager Karen Pascoe.
Photo: Peter de Graaf/RNZ

Pascoe acknowledged taking on Air New Zealand would not be easy.

“Big brother’s always there but we’re just listening to the North. We’re going to give it a go, and give it our best shot.”

Earlier, chief executive Grant Bacon told RNZ it made sense to expand Barrier Air’s service to the Far North’s biggest town.

“We figure that to continue our trajectory, Kerikeri is the next logical option. It’s still quite a distance to get to Auckland and there’s a need for choice in the Far North market, in particular Kerikeri.”

Feedback from the market was that Bay of Islands residents wanted more choice, fair prices, and another option when Air New Zealand flights were cancelled.

Bacon said if the Kerikeri service went well, the airline would consider expanding to Whangārei.

Northlanders have become frustrated in recent years with Air New Zealand’s high cancellation rate.

In the 2023-24 financial year, 6.5 percent of the national airline’s Northland flights, or almost one 1 in 15, were cancelled. The Kerikeri figure was just under 5 percent, or 1 in 20 flights.

However, Air New Zealand said in the first four months of this year its Kerikeri cancellation rate was just 1.7 percent, or 20 flights out of a total of 1178.

Moves to improve reliability included adding a 68-seater ATR-72 aircraft to the Kerikeri schedule in April this year, the airline said.

The last time there was competition on the Auckland-Kerikeri route was in 2008-12, when Paihia company Salt Air operated daily return flights between Bay of Islands and North Shore airports.

Flight Hauraki and North Shore Air offered similar but short-lived services in 2012 and 2015, respectively.

Barrier Air also flies to North Shore, Whitianga, Tauranga, and its birthplace on Aotea Great Barrier Island.