Barrier Air is on track to compete with national carrier Air New Zealand
Recently, Barrier Air announced that they will soon commence flights to Kerikeri from Auckland. The airline is currently best known in Northland for it’s popular Auckland to Kaitaia route which it was been flying since 2015.
A Barrier Air Cessna Caravan preparing for takeoff from Auckland | Photo by: Noah Stohr-Waldren
From August fourth this year, Barrier Air will begin flying the route between Auckland and Kerikeri. Barrier Air will operate twenty-two flights per week, in direct competition with Air New Zealand’s twenty-six flights per week. Currently, Air New Zealand’s flights are sold as cheap as $69, to compete with this, Barrier Air will offer flights as cheap as $39 one way.
At this time, Barrier Air already operates between Auckland and Kaitaia. They began flying this route in 2015, competing with our national airline however, shortly later in 2016, Air New Zealand stopped serving Kaitaia leaving it for Barrier Air to dominate.
““We have a great result with Kaitāia. We figure that with our reputation in the Far North, Kerikeri is the next step.””
In all of 2023, Barrier air only cancelled three flights out of Kaitaia, just 0.3% of their scheduled flights, plus all of these were due to weather. However, in 2023, Air New Zealand cancelled over 4.8% of their flights from Kerikeri which equates to over 60 flights.
A Barrier Air aircraft taxiing at Auckland Airport | Photo by: Noah Stohr-Waldren
Earlier in 2024, Barrier Air announced that they will be purchasing a new Cessna 208B Grand Caravan. This aircraft will join their existing fleet of five Cessna Caravans. Their new aircraft, once purchased by Barrier Air will operate under the registration ZK-SDA. The Cessna Caravan is a versatile aircraft capable of flying up to thirteen passengers.
The small airline currently flies to a number of destinations across the North Island including Auckland, Northshore, Great Barrier, Tauranga, Kaitaia, Whitianga, and soon, Kerikeri.
A Barrier Air Cessna Caravan taking off from Auckland | Photo by: Noah Stohr-Waldren
The move to begin flights to Kerikeri comes just after Air New Zealand announced an increase in capacity on their AKL-KKE flights. On Monday mornings Air NZ will operate one flight using a sixty-eight-seat ATR-72 aircraft instead of their regular fifty-seat Bombardier Dash 8 Q300. While a larger aircraft operating in Kerikeri is a positive, Air NZ also increased prices across its whole network.
Vision Kerikeri chairman Rolf Mueller-Glodde believes that more competition to and from the Bay of Islands will be welcomed and is great for the region.