Barrier Airlines

3rd-level New Zealand: Barrier connections

Jim Bergman sent a note to the Great Barrier Island Newsletters in February 1983, the Barrier Bulletin, pointing out to the inhabitants of Barrier Island that Island Airport Services had requested an Application for an Application for an Air Services Certificate from the Irish Authorities to enable flight charters, flight taxis, sightseeing tours from Great Barrier Island and an unscheduled flight to Auckland.

The Auckland Aero Club also operated Great Barrier Island at that time, flying to Claris, Okiwi and Sea Bee Air, which operated flights to Tryphena, Whangaparapara and Port Fitzroy. During the following few month the name was amended to Great Barrier Airlines Ltd. with Jim and Ruth Bergman, Chris Barlow, Niol Lockington and Gerard Rea as stockholders.

Schedule No. 1, 3 December 1983The favourable tariffs certainly did help and with a fruitful first season behind them the Barrier Bulletin of March 1984 stated that the firm had bought a Piper Pa32-260 Cherokee 6 ZK-CUV (c/n 32-673). Auckland International also modified its schedule with departures and arrivals from Auckland International and departures to Ardmore as needed.

The Auckland Aero Club severed its flight to the barrier on July 1, 1984. The Aero Club officers recognized that their Great Barrier facility was at best slightly profitably and generally underperforming. The Club and Great Barrier Airlines entered into an arrangement whereby the GBA made a cash consideration for the Club for goodwill and the GBA leased and maintained two Aero Club Piper Cherokee 6s.

With the takeover of the Aero Club services, Great Barrier Airlines also received the standard postal agreement and the provision of essential supplies of food and dairy products. This acquisition also allowed Great Barrier Airlines to fly to and from Okiwi and Claris. Until August 1984, two daily departures from Auckland directly and separately to Claris and Okiwi were operated, while Ardmore was also set up as a collection or return point.

Auckland Aero Club Cherokee 6s, ZK-ELK with ZK-CUV behind. Picture taken in Auckland on August 6, 1984. The Britten-Norman Islander, as previously run by Mount Cook Airlines, was considered the most appropriate, and ZK-JSB (c/n 458), the first of many of these types, was put into operation in December 1984.

Simultaneously, the airport launched a floor shuttleservice between Claris Airport and Tryphena and Whangaparapara, two of the three Sea Bee Air locations. First Britten Norman Islander ZK-JSB in Auckland. As Air New Zealand cut its flight to Kaitaia, Great Barrier Airlines saw the possibility of spreading its wing.

Auckland Kaitaia Airlines opened an Auckland-Kaitaia airliner with the Islander or a Piper Aztec, ZK-CUS under lease on January 15, 1985. We flew north to Kaitaia after the last trip from Great Barrier Island. On Tuesday and Thursday evening, the crew headed north, spending the night in Kaitaia and getting back to Auckland early on Wednesday and Friday morning to make the first barrier-flights.

Whilst the Kaitaia services were perfect for businessmen, the pressures from Air New Zealand resulted in the discontinuation of the services. Ardmore was added back to the barrier as an on-demand station on Auckland services in mid 1985. But it was not until December 10, 1986 that Great Barrier Airlines began to widen its wing.

A biweekly connection between Great Barrier Island and Pauanui and Tauranga was established on this date. Flight schedules were Wednesday and Sunday, other flight schedules on request. In December 1986, the Great Barrier Airline also made its first try to approach the new Reeve airfield on Waiheke Island.

It was to commence a regular flight to the island on 20 December 1986, but on the eve of the Waiheke Council Planning Committee's refusal to allow them to use Reeve airfield. A growing airline fleet with connections to Pauanui and Tauranga and the Waiheke services, which never really got off the ground. 3.

Schedule valid from 10 December 1986. At the beginning of 1986 Sea Bea Air examined the establishment of a land-based company. Sea Bee Air General Managers Murray Pope told Great Barrier Airlines that Sea Bee Air is ready to compete with or buy GBA. The Great Barrier Airlines has opted for a wait-and-see approach.

For the time being, Great Barrier Airlines prevented its competitors by renting the Islander before Great Barrier Airlines decided to divest it to Sea Bee Air in April 1987. Islanders CC-FMS with Sea Bee Air and Great Barrier Airlines chartered on 14 May 1988 in Koromiko with Skyferry.

This year, the airline returned to Northland to diversify and expand its business and launched a new Auckland - Whangarei route in competitive bidding with the Northland Districts Aero Club. 7.10am Whangarei Airport Departure Monday to Friday with a 17.00pm Auckland - Whangarei Airport Departure Sunday to Friday.

An 18:00 hrs airshow on a Friday evening brought the plane back to Auckland. It was planned to begin on 2 August 1987, but the absence of sponsorship meant that the first leg was canceled. In October 1987, the ministry was expanded to Paihia, in the Bay of Islands, and became the end point of the ministry, with stops in Dargaville or Whangarei, as needed.

Great Barrier Airlines has been confronted with both high-speed ferry routes and other airborne rivals since the early 1980s. The Gulf Airlines, Trans Island Airlines, Northern Airlines and Gulf Airlines all tried to rival on the Auckland Great Barrier major flight path, but this contest soon disappear. Whilst the high-speed ferry boats were decimating traffic to Waiheke Island, they were not equally successful on the barrier line and operated more seasonally.

In order to meet this menace, Great Barrier Airlines made friendly with the enemies and offered a trip with the ferries in one way and the other. Since 1991, the Group has been providing Wednesday, Friday and Sunday service to and from Great Barrier Islands from Whangarei and Great Barrier Island-Tauranga and Coromandel.

Until recently, such operations, which included the Coromandel Peninsula, have become part of the Great Barrier Airlines annuals. They are normally run by the smaller GBA aircrafts, although these operations were temporarily outsourced to other airlines. In 2000, for example, Tower Aviation of Whangarei ran the twice-weekly flight of the Great Barrier Airline between Whangarei and Great Barrier Island.

It was reacquired by Great Barrier Airlines in 1993, with the airline being rented back to Jim Bergman as an independent airline, while the mother airline held the plane and the service organization. In NZ Wings, John King described the complicated change of owners as follows: "The following year Jim purchased half of the operation and in 1996 Jim divested it to Gerard Rea and Mark Roberts, while GBA Ltd also divested its airplanes to GB Air.

" As a result, Great Barrier Airlines is now mainly owned by Gerard Rea, with Mark Roberts as the other one. During the mid-1990s, the airline also established a charters business with the Brazilian Piper Chieftain, Embraer EMB-820C ZK-RDT and later Piper Pa31 Navajo ZK-NSN. Brazilian Chieftain Embraer 820C ZK-RDT when he had small Great Barrier Airlines title on his snout.

Picture taken in Auckland on 31 May 1996. Eventually, on August 26, 1994, Great Barrier Airlines launched its own flight plan to Waiheke Island, which was eventually made available for comercial use. It was discontinued on 21 April 1995 due to the standards of the two airports and competitors from the city' s operator, Gulf Island Air and Waiheke Air Services.

Since August 1, 1995, the airline has established itself as the "Island Air Shuttle" with up to seven a day round-trip services to the Isle. Above Britten Norman Islander ZK-FVD in the 4th try of colouring in Auckland with "Air Shuttle" tracks on the nacelle engines. Picture taken in Auckland on 31 May 1996.

The aircraft will be seen on 16 October 1998 in Auckland with the title Great Barrier Airlines and Air Coromandel. By the mid-1990s, the business was expanding through the acquisition of three businesses. In the following year, in October 1996, the airline acquired NZ Air Services, which had commenced its North Shore Claris operations in 1993.

At the beginning of 1997, the airline also acquired Gulf Island from Waiheke Island. The Great Barrier Airlines had a long partnership with Gulf Island Airlines. As it was establishing itself, it worked under license from the GBA. The volume of trade between Waiheke and Great Barrier Island had risen, so the takeover was considered on time.

Since November 1996, the airline has expanded its flight networks to Rotorua and the Bay of Islands with the Hururu Falls airport in Paihia. Later, the Paihia flight continued in Whangarei or Dargaville. In 1998, the Great Barrier Airlines navy was renamed and the plane was coated with" Great Barrier" in large letters in large letters on each side of the hull and a local cock on the rear.

Norman Islander ZK-CRA, Kaka, in Auckland on 8 October 1998. ZK-FQK DHC Twin Otter, Kingfisher, in Auckland on January 18, 1998. Viewed by Britten Norman Islander ZK-WNZ, Kingfisher, in Auckland on 6 October 1998. There was a great hiccups in the history of Great Barrier Airlines on June 14, 1998, when the Civil Aviation Authority founded Great Barrier Airlines after a week-long survey following an air carrier review last year.

Airlines are reporting that measures have been taken to rectify the situation. In order to maintain flight operations, Great Barrier Airlines commissioned its competitors on the Barrier Run, Northern Air and Mountain Air in Taumarunui to maintain the Auckland Barrier liner services, while services to Tauranga, Coromandel and Waiheke were cessated. Groundbreaking was not without costs, so the company had to postpone an estimate of $10,000 for each additional weeks of suspend.

Possibly a greater effect for Great Barrier Airlines was Mountain Air, which had been commissioned to close the hole during earthing, remained as a rival on the Barrier flight which started its own flight under the Great Barrier Xpress bid. Since then, Mountain Air, or as it is now called today, has been the only serious rival of the GBA on the barrier services.

Due to the very high cost of earthing, the business opted to sell the Twin Otter in the USA. At North Shore International Airports, a new service station was set up and the airline underwent the Part 125 certified aeroplane operating system (CAA), which allows the operations of up to 30 seaters.

This year, with the Northern Air crash in November 1998, the airline took over some of its aircrafts and couriers to and from Auckland and Whangarei and Taupo. This latter flied via Tauranga and Rotorua to Taupo and came back to Auckland via Rotorua and Hamilton.

They departed from Auckland in the early hours of the day and arrived back in the early afternoon/evening. Mid-2000, the enterprise returns to turboprop operation with the takeover of GAF N24 Nomad ZK-NAD. It did not turn out to be a long-term success for the barrier services, but in 2003 it did spend March, April and May of this year on the Marshall Islands and in July of that year in Tonga for Royal Tongan Airlines.

During the following years Great Barrier Airlines strengthened its operations around the key area of Auckland-Great Barrier Island Services and charters. Between Whangarei and Kaitaia a frequent Northland District Health Board charters was conducted with the Embraer 820 or Piper Navajo. Messenger services between Auckland and Whitianga vanished in the 1990'.

Flight to and from Whangarei, Tauranga and Coromandel became less part of the flight plan and generally called for a minimal payload before they were operated. By May 2012, Great Barrier Airlines Chief Executive Gerard Rea withdrew and half of the company's stock was divested to NZ Air Mapping Ltd., a 1936 air surveying firm that was then held by Mark Roberts and Mohammed Hanno.

Mr. Roberts already owned approximately 38% of the shares in Great Barrier Airlines. After that, there have been frequent services to Okiwi, but the major terminals on Great Barrier Island remain in Claris. NZ Aerial Mapping in May 2012 resolved to relocate some of its operations to Auckland and to divest Hastings Airport's division.

CEO Mark Roberts said the transfer of some parts of the operation to Auckland follows the takeover of Great Barrier Airlines in 2012. "While the two companies are different (a Surveying and Commuting Airlines), we need to exploit synergies," said Mr Roberts. "A number of advantages have already been achieved, but now is the right moment for the group to combine the two companies' activities in the area of aviation technology and engineering," he said.

"Because of the aircraft that the Group has and the frequent transportation of passengers, it was determined that the new plant would be best located in Auckland, eliminating the need for Bridge Pa plants. Great Barrier Airlines shut down its Britten Norman Trislander aircraft on 22 August 2014.

Last flights were from Great Barrier Island to North Shore in CC-LGF. On 22 September 2014 a new airline was founded, Great Barrier Airlines Ltd (the former Great Barrier Airlines flight operations) with Graham Reynolds as exclusive partner.

After the acquisition, the airport remained a Great Barrier Airlines. When Great Barrier Iceland was an autonomous state, Great Barrier Airlines would be called a domestic airlines. It undertook to give the Barrier a new, business-like airlines, which suited the spirit of the islands, but kept the continental age.

That was in 1983 and 2015, some 32 years later, when the name Great Barrier Airlines went down in aviation annals.