Flying is about to get even more expensive, reports Roeland van den Bergh with The Post.
AIANZ CE Simon Wallace said the changes were good for some in the industry and not for others, but overall, the sector was pleased with the result. However the Association would push back on the Government’s intention for CAA to be funded through industry levies.
“In the same way that Crown funding is used to deliver safer roading, New Zealand’s ability to operate international air services and the refreshing of CAA rules is in the wider public interest. This means there should be a Crown contribution in part funding the authority,” Wallace said.
But NZAAA Executive Officer Tony Michelle said it was a “hollow victory” for an industry that was buckling at the knees because the levy structure introduced in 2017 remained “significantly disproportionate” to other categories of commercial aviation.
Michelle was pleased a first principles review of how the CAA was funded would be undertaken, after an earlier attempt was scrapped during the Covid pandemic.
“We’ve got now the thick end of nine years that the ag[riculture] operators have been paying these disproportionate levies. So we’ll be going pretty hard during this principles review, just to make sure that, as an industry, we pay what’s fair based on the services we get from CAA — which are relatively minimal compared to the air transport sector — and the risk that we pose to the third party fare paying public, which is nil.”
However AIANZ Member Air Chathams chief commercial officer Duane Emeny says:
“It’s just another kick in the guts”
Text taken from the article by Roeland van den Bergh, read the full article here.
Read more: CAA Review of Fees, Levies and Charges (01 July 2025 to 30 June 2027)