{"id":462182,"date":"2026-06-05T09:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T09:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/462182\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T09:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T09:50:09","slug":"air-chathams-suspends-kapiti-auckland-route-amid-soaring-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/462182\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Chathams suspends Kapiti-Auckland route amid soaring costs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Regional airline Air Chathams will suspend its route between the Kapiti Coast and Auckland amid a continued spike in operating costs.<\/p>\n

The route will officially close on July 31, eight years after its introduction in 2018. <\/p>\n

Air Chathams chief executive Duane Emeny said the decision was \u201ctough\u201d, but necessary to protect its other routes. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe last five years have seen operating costs in every part of the business rise dramatically.\u201d <\/p>\n

Due to price hikes in many sectors, such as aircraft maintenance, labour, airport charges and fuel prices, Air Chathams loses money every time they run the route. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe unprecedented recent rise in fuel costs comes on top of an already challenging situation,\u201d Emeny said. <\/p>\n

Jet fuel prices have increased for airlines since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, with providers like Air NZ having to reduce flights<\/a> domestically. <\/p>\n

Up until the route closure, Air Chathams has been the only airline to offer direct flights between Paraparaumu and Auckland.<\/p>\n

The aircraft currently stationed at Kapiti will be reallocated to other routes, including connections from Auckland to Whak\u0101tane, Whanganui and the Chatham Islands.<\/p>\n

Despite no sign of improving conditions, Emeny is hopeful that the Kapiti route will be reintroduced, calling it a \u201cfantastic service\u201d for families and businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d love to come back to Kapiti, and when conditions are right, we\u2019re happy to look at it again.\u201d <\/p>\n

Until the July 31 closure, Kapiti routes to Auckland will be run on a reduced schedule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Regional airline Air Chathams will suspend its route between the Kapiti Coast and Auckland amid a continued spike…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[138,2917,42,43,40,38,41,39,52],"class_list":["post-462182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-business","tag-cost-of-living","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-wellington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462182","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=462182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}