{"id":620864,"date":"2026-10-05T02:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T02:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/620864\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T02:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T02:34:09","slug":"regional-airlines-to-get-5-7m-government-support-as-fuel-costs-soar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/620864\/","title":{"rendered":"Regional airlines to get $5.7m Government support as fuel costs soar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Allocations will be based on annual passenger numbers and flight movements.<\/p>\n

Meager said the grants would support day-to-day costs such as fuel and wages, with the airlines expected to maintain their current service levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis support will provide some financial relief over the next 12 months and demonstrates the commitment of the Government to the regions, to their airlines, communities and businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones stressed the support was temporary, targeted and proportionate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis funding will help maintain service levels and preserve essential regional routes that might otherwise be vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The funding will be drawn from the remainder of a $30 million regional air connectivity package<\/a> established in 2025 to support vulnerable air services.<\/p>\n

The Government has already provided nearly $26m in loans through the package for aircraft acquisition or leasing, fleet maintenance and debt refinancing.<\/p>\n

Air Chathams received the largest loan<\/a>, with $17.2m approved to refinance debt, followed by the Blenheim-based Sounds Air with $4.5m for fleet upgrades and debt refinancing.<\/p>\n

Other airlines to receive loans included Sunair ($2.08m), Stewart Island Flights ($640,000) and Island Air ($252,000).<\/p>\n

The Government said the previous loans were intended to support aircraft purchases or leasing, fleet maintenance and debt refinancing.<\/p>\n

In late February, Golden Bay Air was announced as the recipient of a $1.1 million loan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Allocations will be based on annual passenger numbers and flight movements. Meager said the grants would support day-to-day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[57908,169288,17622,806,802,46227,2678,1333,266,5838,809,34590,1132,111,43,139,69,17177,7565,5914,8814,26213,42370,666,1886,61,1533,102],"class_list":["post-620864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-57908","tag-57m","tag-airlines","tag-as","tag-costs","tag-essential","tag-fuel","tag-get","tag-government","tag-help","tag-keep","tag-lifeline","tag-million","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-operating","tag-receive","tag-regional","tag-routes","tag-soar","tag-soaring","tag-struggling","tag-support","tag-to","tag-will","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620864","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=620864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}