{"id":384906,"date":"2026-04-17T23:01:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/384906\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T23:01:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:01:35","slug":"iran-war-fuel-prices-squeeze-regional-airlines-government-open-to-being-flexible-about-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/384906\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran war: Fuel prices squeeze regional airlines, Government open to being \u2018flexible\u2019 about help"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cAvgas supplies<\/a> are normal and the stock levels are healthy and there is no current disruption to avgas supplies,\u201d he said this week.<\/p>\n

He said airlines wanted to know what was happening with the $30 million earmarked in September to be set aside from the Regional Infrastructure Fund (RIF) for carriers. <\/p>\n

Golden Bay Air in late February was announced as the recipient of a $1.1m loan, but Wallace said he was unaware of any others receiving support.<\/p>\n

He said the fuel price crisis meant now was an ideal time for the RIF to support airlines.<\/p>\n

Wallace said subsidies might be needed as well as loans.<\/p>\n

Whanganui District Council this week declined Air Chathams\u2019 request<\/a> to temporarily waive aeronautical fees.<\/p>\n

Associate Minister of Transport James Meager said announcements were due imminently on other recipients. <\/p>\n

\u201cI note the majority of New Zealand\u2019s regional airlines have lodged applications and are being worked through at pace,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe package was designed to stabilise the sector and support regional routes in the short to medium term, by providing targeted relief for such things as aircraft leasing, maintenance and debt refinancing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meager said he acknowledged the fuel crisis had created more pressure for regional airlines.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I believe it is worth considering what flexibility there is under the existing fund conditions,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo decisions have been made on this, with any changes subject to Cabinet approval.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he was mindful of supporting regional connectivity and responding to the Middle East war\u2019s impacts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis includes engaging closely with key industries affected by the global disruption to fuel supply, including the aviation sector, to seek input to the National Fuel Response Plan<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

That was focused on the details of phases three and four in the plan, and to understand how the industry is responding to fuel supply and price challenges.<\/p>\n

\"JamesJames Meager says more airline loan requests are being looked at. Photo \/Zahn Trotter, Aviation Industry Association<\/p>\n

Phase one was described as \u201cwatchful\u201d and phase two as \u201cprecautionary\u201d.<\/p>\n

Phase three would be for when supply was tighter and the Government was making sure fuel went where it was needed most.<\/p>\n

Phase four was about protecting critical services.<\/p>\n

It would be for times of major or sustained supply disruption, and there would be formal rules to ensure fuel is distributed fairly.<\/p>\n

Overseas, Lufthansa said yesterday it was closing regional subsidiary carrier CityLine because of fuel prices and labour disputes.<\/p>\n

The German airline also said it was taking steps to remove \u201cparticularly inefficient aircraft\u201d from operations.<\/p>\n

The head of the International Energy Agency this morning told AP that Europe had \u201cmaybe six weeks or so\u201d of remaining jet fuel supplies.<\/p>\n

The New Zealand Government in its latest fuel update said the country had 21.3 days of jet fuel in the country and 10 days\u2019 worth on the water less than two days away.<\/p>\n

A further 15.7 days\u2019 worth was on the water up to three weeks away.<\/p>\n

John Weekes<\/a> is a business journalist covering aviation. He previously covered consumer affairs, crime, politics and courts.<\/p>\n

Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our Business newsletter<\/a> \u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAvgas supplies are normal and the stock levels are healthy and there is no current disruption to avgas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1443,17622,682,138,537,219,9475,2678,266,6098,5838,30538,16609,302,111,139,69,5493,3333,12937,5914,312,56425,61,6149],"class_list":{"0":"post-384906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-about","9":"tag-airlines","10":"tag-being","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-crisis","13":"tag-economy","14":"tag-flexible","15":"tag-fuel","16":"tag-government","17":"tag-hard","18":"tag-help","19":"tag-helping","20":"tag-iran","21":"tag-its","22":"tag-new-zealand","23":"tag-newzealand","24":"tag-nz","25":"tag-open","26":"tag-price","27":"tag-prices","28":"tag-regional","29":"tag-says","30":"tag-squeeze","31":"tag-to","32":"tag-war"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}