Regional airline Sounds Air forced to drop routes as it sells part of fleet

NZ Herald

21 Jul, 2025 02:41 AM2 mins to read

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A Sounds Air nine-seater Pilatus PC12 plane. The airline is selling off its PC12 fleet. Photo / NZME

Regional airline Sounds Air is dropping some routes as it sells off part of its fleet amid rising costs.

Sounds Air chief executive Andrew Crawford told Newstalk ZB it was just another blow to regions in this country.

“We just can’t keep going with the ever-increasing costs that are being
imposed on the business.

“In particular, because everything we buy is in US dollars, the currency is so weak, and costs have gone up so much since Covid, it’s just no longer viable to fly some of our fleets.

“We’ve had over half a million of costs imposed in the last three months that we’ve really got no way of getting back except for passing onto customers.”