Sounds Air electric aircraft plans pushed back

Thursday, 10 August 2023

Sounds Air chair Rhyan Wardman says designs and prototypes are still being developed. (File photo)

Hopes that Sounds Air will have electric aircraft flying from Blenheim to Wellington in a couple of years have been put on hold.

When the Blenheim-based airline announced in 2021 it was working with Swedish company Heart Aerospace to have three 19-seat, ES-19 aircraft on the route, the intention was the service would begin in 2026.

Sounds Air chair Rhyan Wardman said the date had now been pushed out to some time between 2028 and 2030.

“Obviously these aircraft are still being developed, and Heart Aerospace are still developing their prototypes and designs,” Wardman said.

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Sounds Air has four Cessna 208 Caravans and six Pilatus PC aircraft.

“You have to take a fluid and flexible approach about deliveries.”

Wardman said the design had increased also from 19-seat aircraft to 32-seaters.

“That’s the design, it’s evolved into a 32-seater they want to go with, and we’re comfortable with that.”

The cost of the acquiring the three aircraft was not being revealed, he said.

Sounds Air currently had four 12-seat Cessna 208 Caravan aircraft and six Pilatus PC aircraft (nine-seaters) operating on multiple routes, with the busiest being 44 flights a week between Blenheim and Wellington.

Air New Zealand was still intending to provide lower-emission aircraft from 2026, initially for cargo-only services, with an announcement on which type expected by early next year.

The aerospace industry was one of five priority Marlborough sectors highlighted in Te Mahere Ahumahi ā-Rohe o Te Tauihu o Te Waka-a-Māui Marlborough Regional Workforce Plan, released in July.

New Zealand was estimated to have the highest number of aircraft per capita in the world, but there was a national and international shortage of aeronautical engineers, the plan said. Boeing estimated they would need an extra 10,000 technicians between 2022 and 2041 in Oceania.

Marlborough was a prime site for emerging short-haul technologies due to its central location, and had the country’s only aeronautical engineering course in partnership with Te Pūkenga NMIT and the New Zealand Defence Force, the plan said.

However, that training facility was at capacity, and Base Woodbourne’s security requirements limited enrolments, precluding applicants such as international students and people with criminal convictions.

The plan recommended broadening Marlborough’s existing courses to cover emerging technologies as well as traditional aviation, delivered in a mixture of work-based and campus-based settings.

Other recommendations were investing in changing skill requirements with the increase in the number of low and low emission aircraft, and supporting investment in a multi-trade facility at NMIT Te Pūkenga in Blenheim.