Sounds Air: The once 'niche' airline fighting economic headwinds with grit and a smile

Saturday, 14 September 2024

Stuff Travel journalist Alan Granville profiles a regional New Zealand airline which has been flying high for nearly 40 years - Sounds Air.

Andrew Crawford doesn’t look like a man who is intimidated too often.

Hovering around the 2-metre-tall mark, the 61-year-old CEO of Sounds Air has a big personality and a forthrightness honed from a background in farming and machinery. He’s a man who has seen it all in his two decades at the small airline.

So when he opens up that the plucky outfit he took over in 2003 is experiencing some of the worst economic headwinds he’s ever seen, it shouldn’t be taken lightly.

“I think, potentially, (it’s) never been tougher,” he told Stuff Travel.

“Fuel is dramatic. The dollar is bad. That makes it very difficult, because all aviation parts and aircraft are charged in US dollars. So when the dollar is bad, you know, we pay a lot more for them.

“But everything, I mean, engines in particular, have gone up a lot. And of course that's our business. We only fly a turbine fleet. We don't have any pistons. And turbine engines are very, very expensive.”

An example of the frustration in the supply chain is a Sounds Air plane grounded now for four months while waiting for a part: “There's nothing you can do about it.”

Sounds Air, alongside fellow small operators Barrier Air and Air Chathams, operate 650 flights a week around New Zealand, providing critical regional connectivity despite no support from the government.

“There's plenty of people flying,” said Crawford. “But I can tell you now, there's no huge profits falling out the bottom.”

He even admitted he was “embarrassed” about his airline’s ticket prices needed to cover the costs, “but it's just the way it is”.

The start

In the past Crawford has described the airline as a bit “niche” thanks to its rather humble beginnings.

Soundsair, as it was originally stylised, was founded in 1987 by Cliff and Diane Marchant with a goal to showcase the stunning Marlborough Sounds.

Looking for a new challenge after years working with generators, Crawford bought into the business in 2003, inheriting one Cessna Caravan, “which we've still got”.

“We flew one route, Wellington to Picton, at our own airport in Picton. So what we bought into was one plane and one airport, and at the time, we had about 5000 passengers a year, three pilots and about six staff.”

The airline also came with a rather unfortunate nickname, White Knuckle Airlines.

“This is something we needed to change. We couldn't have people getting on a plane and being scared. And that was something we really worked on for years and years, and we still do to this day, is to make people comfortable when they're flying, and it makes a huge difference.”

Asked whether he still regarded Sounds Air as niche, Crawford said probably not: “I think we’re getting a big bigger than that now. We're a critical part of New Zealand's infrastructure.”

The present

Sounds Air is not sitting still, despite the economic headwinds. Now offering more than 300 flights per week, that will increase to 360+ from October.

There are 70 people on staff including 26 pilots, with another 15 working maintenance duties at the airline’s base at Omaka Airfield near Blenheim.

General manager Olivia Jacobs has been with the company for nearly a decade, having worked her way up from ground crew. She said the staff are “a really tight knit group of people”.

“There are a lot of reasons I've stuck around for 10 years, and the main one probably is company culture. Everyone's friendly and respectful, and we look out for each other. We work as a team, no-one's too important for any one job, and we all just kind of have a laugh at the end of the day.”

Dealing with the logistics of the infamous Cook Strait weather means plenty of weekly challenges for Jacobs, but she takes it in her stride: “You'd think it'd be a lot harder, but for the most part it takes a lot for us to cancel.”

Any mucky weather generally passes through “pretty quickly”, “so we just trust our pilots to assess the weather, and then we just kind of go from there.“

The airline operates two different types of aircraft in its fleet of 10, four of the workhorse Cessna Caravans and six Pilatus PC12s.

Pilot Conor Cook has been with Sounds for just over a year and called the Caravan “a utility aircraft”.

“Seats 12 to 13 people on our configurations. It’s a little bit slower, it does the main trunk across the Strait, which is what it's really good for. There's nothing really that can compare in terms of efficiency, that can do the same number of people.

“Then the PC12, a lot faster, got higher performance, and is pretty much perfect for doing the little regional flights.”

Asked which he preferred to fly, Cook didn’t hesitate: “I like the PC12. I like going fast.”

Fellow pilot Emily Wallace agreed: “It's beautiful.”

The Blenheim local is also a recent member of the team and said the challenging nature of flying around the region is just part of the job.

“We've trained for it, and when you do it enough, it just becomes a regular day. We know Wellington is going to be windy every single day, so we're prepared for it.

“We know it's a challenging part of the world to fly, but it's also quite rewarding. You get the mountain views and the beautiful sunrises and sunsets. So it's well worth it.”

The future

Sounds Air was an early pioneer of bringing electric planes in New Zealand. It agreed a deal in 2021 with Swedish company Heart Aerospace to put 19-seater, ES-19 aircraft on the Blenheim to Wellington route.

The intention was to begin service in 2026, but that time-line has slipped significantly.

Crawford admitted it wasn’t the airline’s goal right now: “Our focus is just trying to consolidate what we've got. And at the moment, there's nothing to fly anyway.

“It hasn't come along as quickly as I think people would hope, and if we're honest, it's probably going to be a hybrid-type thing, with electric powered or maybe hydrogen.

“But at the moment, there's nothing there to offer, so we're just waiting for developments. And of course, where's the money going to come from to do this?”

Looking into his crystal ball, where does Crawford see Sounds Air in 10 years?

“I'd certainly like to be doing what we're doing now, maybe more so, more regional connections and really pulling that remote part of New Zealand into the centre. We need it. It's critical, no doubt about it.”

More info: soundsair.com

Sounds Air facts

Founded: 1987 as Soundsair, changing to Sounds Air in 2003.

Fleet: Two Cessna Caravan C208s, two Cessna Caravan C208Bs and six Pilatus PC12s.

Routes: More than 300 flights per week, rising to 360 from October.

Wellington to Blenheim, Picton, Taupō, Westport, Nelson.

Blenheim to Paraparaumu, Christchurch.

Paraparaumu to Nelson.

Christchurch to Wānaka.

Staff: 70 Sounds Air staff, 15 Sounds Aero Maintenance staff.