Part 1: Birth of an airline
Great Barrier Island, that remote part of Auckland at the outer edge of the Hauraki Gulf, needed a land–based air service. During the summer of 1982, while my wife Ruth and I were on one of our regular holidays on the island in our Cessna 172 ZK–DKH, we decided that the demand was there for the establishment of an airline.
My recent retirement from flying Air New Zealand Boeing 747s and Ruth’s CPL with multi–engine turboprop rating (we were at the time flying a Beech C90 turboprop King Air as a two–pilot crew) helped us decide to follow up the idea. After several months of investigation, paperwork, discussions and a short stint flying a Beechcraft Excalibur Queen Air with Ewan Smith’s and Munro Hokin’s Air Rarotonga to get ideas, we decided to give it a go.
Great Barrier Airlines Ltd (GBA) was formed by myself, Ruth and three of our Air New Zealand captain friends, Chris Barlow, Niol Lockington and Gerard Rea. Next priority was aircraft. The ideal was a Britten–Norman Islander, but the initial cost was outside our funds. We decided to restore a damaged 37–year–old de Havilland Drover three–engine eight–passenger aircraft stored in a Dairy Flat hangar. This, along with our own Cessna 172 and a leased Cessna 206, was to be our initial fleet.
Obtaining an air service licence before deregulation and restoring the veteran Drover to airworthy condition are stories in themselves. Great Barrier Airlines started flying with its first service flown by myself in Cessna DKH on 2 December 1983. Three return services each weekday and two on weekend days, with additional flights at peak times and up to two aircraft on each service, were planned. All bookings were handled by either Ruth or myself when not flying, or a phone answering service when we were both airborne.
The airline really took off, so within two weeks, in order to handle the holiday increase in traffic, we employed our first pilot. Brian Riley, a boat builder whom I had recently taught to fly, joined us. At this stage all services were flown VFR (very funny rules) and although we made an effort to comply, at times maintaining a service in almost any weather on this overwater route was, to say the least, demanding.
Over the Christmas period Chris and Gerard helped out whenever possible with the flying and bookings while Niol spent considerable time assisting engineer Stan Smith restore the Drover.
A typical Drover load would comprise up to eight passengers, a dog or two, surfboards, backpacks and suitcases. A typical flight got underway with most passengers arriving at the terminal (a converted garden shed) at departure time rather than reporting time, the odd one even sometimes late. Very few if any would have pre–purchased tickets and the luggage was typically loose items in unsecured packs and cardboard boxes. All this was loaded by the pilot in record time so as to enable a not–too–late departure in an attempt to have an on-time arrival.
During the first four months’ operations, in addition to freight over 4000 passengers were carried, and operations changed from Ardmore airfield to Auckland International Airport. GBA added Cherokee 6 ZK–CUV to the fleet and returned the leased Cessna 206 which didn’t have the space available for five passengers and baggage.
At this time the Auckland Aero Club, which had also been operating a service to the Barrier, was suffering from a drop in passengers and approached GBA, offering to sell us its operation. As the aero club had freight contracts for mail and bread, plus the lease on Okiwi airfield on the Barrier which to date GBA hadn’t been able to use, buying them out was a great option for us. In addition, GBA agreed to operate the aero club’s Cherokee 6 on lease as required.
Our only competitor now was Sea Bee Air. The Mechanics Bay–based amphibian unscheduled air service operated mainly around the inner Gulf islands but did operate on demand, sometimes twice a day, flights to and from Great Barrier Island. As Sea Bee Air serviced the ports of Tryphena, Whangaparapara and Fitzroy on the west coast, and GBA landed at airfields on the east coast, to be competitive we initially offered a subsidised taxi to meet flights.
Before very long, GBA was operating its own minibus road transfer connection which, although not now owned by GBA, continues to this day. With the ever–increasing passenger numbers and freight, GBA now employed ground staff at Auckland International and handled its own customers, a job initially carried out on contract by Mt Cook Airlines.
After only 10 months of operations, business had dramatically increased to the extent that we were now operating not only the Drover but also two Cherokee 6s and the Cessna 172, and it had become obvious that we needed to have all–weather IFR capability. A Britten–Norman Islander was the obvious choice. In early December 1984 one was purchased in Manila and ferried to New Zealand by Ruth and myself. So just one year after starting operations GBA had its first BN2A Islander, ZK–JSB.
In addition to the Barrier service we now aggressively looked for additional work in the form of charters. Very fortunately, just as the Islander became available for service after an overhaul and repaint, the pilots of the domestic side of the recently merged national carrier, Air New Zealand, decided to go initially on a go–slow and then, a few days before Christmas, on strike.
Being established with a counter in the Auckland domestic terminal, we were snowed under. Also with great luck the weather over the entire country was near perfect, with the result that we flew all our aircraft from dawn to dark. The Islander, being IFR, was flying 14 hours a day.
The strike ended on Christmas Eve, allowing us to cope with the holiday Barrier traffic. Not only was this a windfall of vastly increased flying hours and therefore revenue, but it also put us on the map by means of our aircraft with the distinctive Barrier Airlines logo, designed by Chris Barlow, being seen at numerous New Zealand airports.
As a result of being based in the domestic terminal at Auckland we were very aware of the domestic arm of Air New Zealand’s extremely poor service at the time to the northern town of Kaitaia. We decided to operate an evening service north to Kaitaia and a following day early–morning return to Auckland, twice a week on days that Air New Zealand didn’t provide a connection.
This was great extra revenue for the Islander as the evening flight north was timed to depart after our last Barrier flight arrival in Auckland and the morning return flight to arrive in Auckland prior to our first Barrier flight. This service started on 15 January 1985. With no autopilot in the Islander, the CAA’s requirement was for two pilots, so Ruth and I did these flights and overnighted in Kaitaia.
To back up the Islander on the Kaitaia service we leased Piper Aztec ZK–CUS. This allowed for up to five passengers and, with autopilot, a single pilot. As it turned out the service was popular and the Islander flew most flights, but the Aztec allowed for an increase in charter work.
The service was reasonably patronised, but Air New Zealand was not impressed. As our other three shareholders (who owned 49 percent of GBA) were employed by Air New Zealand as captains on domestic Friendship services, pressure was put on them to discontinue the service and a Friendship was scheduled to fly on the days we were flying. Our Kaitaia service was stopped.
One can’t fight Big Brother as can be seen by the present Air New Zealand complete control of provincial domestic travel and, until recently, main trunk routes as well.
(to be continued)
- Jim Bergman