Dave Hall

I recently undertook overseas air travel to South Africa to visit my 108-year-old mother and to attend a school reunion.  International flight from Auckland was with a large well-known airline and that went without incident.  

With all the recent discussion about the hard times Air Chathams was experiencing and the need to support the local carrier, I chose to purchase tickets for the Whakatāne-Auckland leg with them, with several hours to allow for connections in Auckland.

On the day of my departure, I rang in the morning to confirm that my 5pm flight was on schedule and was advised that it was.

At 3pm, I received a text message to advise me that the flight was cancelled and replaced with a bus at the same departure time.

The new arrival time in Auckland would have been too late to make my international connection.

Fortunately, I was able to purchase a ticket for a Tauranga flight so that, with the help of a good friend who rushed me to Tauranga Airport, I was able to safely make the international connection.

Needless to say, this was a very stressful process, with potentially major disruption of my travel arrangements and considerable additional expense.  

On my return journey a couple of weeks later, I checked my emails at Dubai Airport to discover that my Air Chathams mid-afternoon flight from Auckland to Whakatāne had been cancelled and that I was transferred to a midday flight, again eliminating the time I needed to clear customs and make the transfer.

I replied, advising Air Chathams that I could not make the flight on time. As expected, I arrived too late.

The best Air Chathams could offer was a flight later in the weekend, which would have necessitated finding accommodation in Auckland on the Friday of a long weekend as well as disrupting my plans for the weekend.  

Again, Air NZ came to the rescue with a mid-afternoon flight to Tauranga – the exorbitantly expensive last seat on the plane – where I was able to arrange a lift to Whakatāne.

I have since been refunded by Air Chathams for both legs of my journey.

This is the third flight in succession where Air Chathams has cancelled my booked flight and advised me of alternative arrangements and I do not believe weather issues caused these.

Reports from friends indicate that my problems were not unique. This business of loyalty needs to work both ways – we should support our local businesses, but Air Chathams need to recognise its responsibility to  serve its customers by sticking to its planned flights as far as is possible.  

Some people travel to Auckland to make international connections, and last-minute changes to the Whakatāne/Auckland leg do not make for stress-free travel  and can potentially be very expensive and disruptive.

And where cancellation is unavoidable, adequate notice should be provided to allow alternative arrangements to be made.

Sadly, based on current performance I will be very wary of using Air Chathams for future travel.

■ Air Chathams chief executive Duane Emeny responds:

I want to start by thanking this customer for choosing to fly with Air Chathams and for taking the time to share their experience. I can fully appreciate how stressful it must have been to have travel plans disrupted ahead of an important overseas trip. That is not the experience we ever want our passengers to have, and I apologise for the frustration and extra cost it caused.

The reality is that we’ve had a challenging run of late across a few of our regional routes. There have been occasions where aircraft maintenance or crewing requirements – both of which we take extremely seriously from a safety standpoint – have forced last-minute schedule changes.

None of that makes it any easier for those affected, and I accept that we have not communicated as promptly or as clearly as we should have in some cases.

Our family has built Air Chathams over nearly 40 years on the back of loyalty, reliability, and personal service. When we fall short of those standards, it really impacts and disappoints our team – because we know our customers choose us out of trust and convenience.

We are already working through internal processes and resourcing to ensure better notice is given where changes are unavoidable and to reduce the need for cancellations altogether.

I want to assure our Whakatāne and wider Eastern Bay passengers that we are absolutely committed to providing a great service.

Supporting regional New Zealand is at the heart of what we do, but that support has to go both ways – we must deliver the dependable service our communities expect, and we are determined to restore that confidence. This will be further enhanced by our upcoming interline partnership with Air NZ too.

Thank you again for your patience and for holding us to account.

We value your loyalty and will work hard to earn it back.