‘Like running a restaurant’: Air Chathams explains decision to leave Kāpiti
Wednesday, 10 June 2026
Air Chathams boss Duane Emeny says running an airline is a bit like running a restaurant, as the family-owned carrier prepares to end its direct Kāpiti Coast to Auckland service in late July after eight years.
For an airline and a restaurant “selling seats brings in the money, and costs take it out, hopefully leaving a bit over at the end - in a good year”, Emeny said.
But the big difference between an airline and a restaurant business was that an aircraft cost just as much to run whether it was empty or full.
“Imagine running a restaurant where you have to buy in enough perishable food and drinks every night for a full house. Then, ahead of each sitting, you have to cook and serve a meal for every seat in the room - even the empty ones.
“That’s life in the airline business … Flying a full aeroplane from A to B costs about as much as flying a nearly empty one.”
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The combination of rising costs for fuel, maintenance, labour, airport charges, air traffic control fees and compliance all meant the airline lost money every time it flew to Kāpiti.
And the landing fees for an aeroplane with 34 paying passengers were the same as those for the same aircraft carrying three people, he said.
“The only cost difference between a full aeroplane and an empty one is how many Tim Tams we give out.”
At the same time the biggest costs to fly - spare parts and other engineering costs, as well as fuel - had increased significantly.
The price of jet fuel had risen 75% this year forcing the airline to increase fares for the first time since before Covid, and introduce a fuel surcharge on the assumption it could be dropped when fuel prices come down.
“But none of that works if we don’t sell enough tickets. And for quite a while, sadly, we haven’t been selling enough in and out of Paraparaumu.”
The 34-seat Saab twin turboprop aircraft, the smallest the company operated on a scheduled passenger flight “has been nowhere near full”.
In a difficult economy people took fewer flights, but the opening of the Transmission Gully highway had added to the challenge, reducing the travel time to Wellington Airport where flights to Auckland were available throughout the day on Air New Zealand and Jetstar jets with cheaper fares, and people voted with their feet, he said.
“The reality is the turboprops are, on a cost per seat basis, exceptionally more expensive to run than a large narrow body jet, so we're always going to be up against it.”
For a small regional airline like Air Chathams, expanding the Kāpiti service or launching new South Island routes would have carried significant risk while demand was still being built.
And Kāpiti Airport, being privately owned, meant it could be closed for redevelopment at any time, he said.
But the airline would take another look at returning when the cost of fuel fell.