Barrier Air

Barrier Air is a New Zealand airline that was established in 1983 by Jim Bergman as Great Barrier Airlines. The head office is located at the Domestic Terminal at Auckland Airport in Mangere, with additional offices in the terminal buildings at Great Barrier Aerodrome, Kaitaia Airport and North Shore Aerodrome.[2]

Barrier Air
IATA ICAO Callsign
GBA[1] BARRIER[1]
Founded1983
Fleet size3
Destinations4
HeadquartersAuckland, New Zealand
Websitehttp://www.barrierair.kiwi
Aircraft of the airline at the Claris Aerodrome in June 2008.

History

The airline's initial fleet was one Cessna 172, one Cessna 206 and a vintage DHA3 Australian three engine Drover. Bergman flew the first scheduled service to Great Barrier Island on 2 December 1983,[3] departing from Ardmore Airport, an airport three nautical miles southeast of Manurewa in Auckland, New Zealand. The company initially operated 3 flights a day via Auckland International onto Claris. In July 1984 the airline started flight to Okiwi airfield as well. The first Britten Norman Islander was introduced in December 1984. First flights to Whangarei from its Auckland base began in August 1987. The airline briefly served Waiheke island from August 1994 to April 1995. They also purchased a subsidiary company, Air Coromandel in 1995 which had sole commercial rights to Whitianga. In November 1996 Rotorua (served via Tauranga) and Pahia were added to the network. Later this flight was extended down to Taupo in November 1998. A new aircraft type was added, the Britten Norman Trislander starting services on 24 December 2002. Since then three other Trislanders have served in the fleet.[4] In early 2015, coinciding with a change in management, and the purchase of an ex-Bering Air Cessna Grand Caravan, the name of the airline was changed from Great Barrier Airlines to Barrier Air.[5]

Destinations

As of November 2018, Barrier Air operate the following routes:

From Auckland

From Claris, Great Barrier Island (Great Barrier Aerodrome)

From Kaitaia

Terminated Destinations

Fleet
  • 3 Cessna Grand Caravan[6]

Former fleet:

Competition

It has been in a long-running commercial battle with its main local competitor Great Barrier Xpress Mountain Air (with the Great Barrier division of Mountain Air now sold off and operating separately as Fly My Sky), which it claims has at times used methods like registering the name 'Great Barrier Air' for its own operations (something that was later forbidden by a legal injunction, as it was too close to Great Barrier Airlines own name). The competition between the two airlines is considered as one of the main reasons for the relatively low flight prices, which as of January 2008 remained almost exactly at 1998 prices, despite a trebling of aviation fuel prices in the nine years of competition between the two airlines.[3]

References
  1. Not an ICAO allocation - issued for domestic use by the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand: http://www.caa.govt.nz/airlines/Call_signs.pdf Archived 18 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "Contact Us". Great Barrier Airlines. Archived from the original on 8 November 2011. Retrieved 29 November 2011."Physical: Air New Zealand Domestic Terminal Auckland International Airport (Eastern End)" and "Terminal Building North Shore Aerodrome Dairy Flat"
  3. Thompson, Wayne (5 January 2008). "Rival airlines turn up tit-for-tat heat". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 8 July 2010.
  4. Lowe, Steve. "The Barrier Connection - Great Barrier Airlines". 3rd Level NZ. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  5. "." Barrier Air. Retrieved on 4 August 2015.
  6. "Third Caravan". 3rd Level NZ. Retrieved 12 October 2018.


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