New Zealand Air Transport

I worked as Head, International Air Transport then as a Principal Adviser at the New Zealand Ministry of Transport. I transferred from the Aviation & Security Team to the Technology & Transport Systems Team then worked briefly for the new Resilience & Security Team before taking early retirement in October 2017. My past responsibilities lay in the area of international air services regulation (New Zealand had negotiated bilateral air services agreements with over 47 partner governments by 2013), aviation safety and international relations.

Relevant New Zealand departments and agencies

We worked closely with a number of New Zealand government departments including:

• the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade - New Zealand Treaties Online - NZLII New Zealand Treaty Series  

• The Treasury

• the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment Tourism 

• the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

• Statistics New Zealand - International Travel data - Overseas Cargo data - Infoshare 

• Ministry for the Environment - the work of the Climate Change Commission is also now relevant

On air facilitation matters we worked with: 

• NZ Customs Service 

• Biosecurity NZ 

• NZ Police 

We also worked with the New Zealand Tourism Board who have a Corporate Website and the PureNZ site for visitors to New Zealand, and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise 

 New Zealand ministerial statements and speeches on international air transport 

The current Minister of Transport is Chris Bishop NEW replacing Simeon Brown and the Associate Minister of Transport is James Meager NEW replacing Matt Doocey.

The last Labour Party Minister of Transport was Hon David Parker and the Associate Minister of Transport was Hon Damian O'Connor following the resignation of Hon Kiritapu Allan in July 2023. Recent Transport Ministers have included: Hon Michael Wood, Hon Phil Twyford, Hon Simon Bridges, Hon Gerry Brownlie, Hon Steven Joyce, Hon Annette King, Hon David Parker [CHECK], Hon Pete Hodgson [CHECK], Hon Paul Swain [CHECK] and Hon Mark Gosche.

In December 1979 the Government released the External Civil Aviation Policy of New Zealand (AJHR H. 3).

In 1985 the Government released an international air transport policy that was a major liberalisation in the approach to be taken in air services negotiations with other countries.

In 1996 the then Minister made a speech to the Aviation Law Association about the new the Single Aviation Market with Australia.

In 1998 the then Minister released an updated statement of New Zealand's International Air Transport Policy. In a speech to the AIA on 26 July 2010 the Associate Minister announced that the Ministry of Transport would be reviewing this policy.

In a speech to the AAPA on 17 November 2000 the then Minister outlined aviation policy priorities. In a speech to the AIA on 21 July 2000 and a speech to BARNZ on 23 August 2000 the then Minister outlined air services negotiating priorities. (The previous speech outlining such priorities had been made by a previous Minister on 2 July 1999.)

Relevant ministerial media statements included one on airline investment policy issued on 20 November 2000, one relating to Virgin Blue issued on 24 November 2000, one on investment in Air New Zealand by Qantas issued on 18 December 2002.

In a speech to the AIA on 22 July 2005 the Minister of Transport Safety outline recent progress in air services negotiations and current work.

On 21 May 2012 the Minister of Transport released an International Air Transport Policy Review discussion document WBM.

On 30 August 2012 the Minister of Transport, Hon Gerry Brownlee, announced a new International Air Transport Policy WBM (Q and A WBM). The Ministry of Transport also released a summary of submissions WBM and made available the 12 submissions WBM received on the discussion document.

In response to the COVID-19 epidemic the Government established an International Air Freight Capacity (IAFC) scheme March 2020. This ran until April 2021. This was replaced by a Maintaining International Air Connectivity (MIAC) scheme that ran from May 2021 until March 2023. Statements about the schemes were made by Ministers of Transport, Hon Phil Twyford, on 2 May 2020 and Hon Michael Wood, on 13 December 2020, 22 March 2021 and 27 May 2021.

The following is a collection of ministerial media statements on new air services arrangements with (dates are when the statement was released):

New Zealand air services agreements

The New Zealand Ministry of Transport publishes a list of New Zealand's air services arrangements. The texts of treaties and now MoUs are provided online by the MFAT web site New Zealand Treaties Online. I have my own unofficial list of relationships that I have cross linked to the texts (note that this does not include links to any amendments).

The full texts of the Australia - New Zealand Memorandum of Understanding WBM (signed on 20 November 2000) and Air Services Agreement (signed on 8 August 2002) are also available. Amongst other things these new arrangements replaced the Australia - New Zealand Single Aviation Market Arrangements (signed on 19 September 1996).

The full text of the Multilateral Agreement on the Liberalization of International Air Transportation signed (on 1 May 2001) by Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States of America and in effect since 21 December 2001 is available on line (the text [CHECK] as negotiated is also available).

A media statement [CHECK] on the "ground-breaking" New Zealand-United Kingdom Air Services Agreement initialled on 27 May 2005 was released in London. The Agreement was signed in Wellington on 26 July 2005.

On 23 June 2005 a media statement [CHECK] was released in Brussels on the New Zealand-European Union "horizontal" aviation Agreement initialled on 14 March 2005 and signed on 21 June 2006. On 12 September 2005 the European Commission announced that, subject to the agreement of member states (obtained on 13 June 2008), it proposed to open aviation negotiations with New Zealand (see also the related Communication from the Commission - Developing a Community civil aviation policy towards New Zealand).

On 26 September 2006 the Minister of Transport answered a series of written Parliamentary Questions from Heather Roy MP about the New Zealand - United Arab Emirates air services arrangements and Emirates' services to New Zealand (see 13367, 13368, 13369, 13370,  13371, 13372, 13373, 13374, 13375, 13377, 13378, 13460).

On 18 September 2019 a media statement announced that New Zealand had begun talks with ASEAN aimed at concluding a regional air services agreement. ASEAN announced on 13 September 2023 that these negotiations had been successfully concluded. In January 2025 the New Zealand Ministry of Transport proactively released NEW the unsigned text of the Agreement and associated report to Cabinet.

New Zealand economic regulation of international airlines

New Zealand legislation is available on the web. This includes the international air services licensing and international air carriage competition provisions of the Civil Aviation Act 1990 (Parts 8A and 9) and its new replacement the Civil Aviation Act 2023 (Part 6)[Planned from 5 April 2025. Check for Commencement Order]. The NZ Ministry of Transport web site has information relating to New Zealand's licensing requirements for scheduled international air services and authorisation requirements for non-scheduled flight approvals.

Air New Zealand restructuring

The conditions the Australian Government imposed on Air New Zealand's purchase of Ansett were announced on 13 June 2000.

Papers from 2001 relating to the recapitalisation of Air New Zealand were released by the New Zealand Government on 10 April 2002.

On 9 December 2002 joint applications concerning a proposed strategic alliance and an equity investment by Qantas were made by Air New Zealand and Qantas to the competition authorities in New Zealand WBM and Australia WBM.

A New Zealand High Court judgement WBM (.pdf download) dated 17 September 2004 rejected the proposed alliance on competition grounds.

On 12 October 2004 the Australian Competition Tribunal ruled in favour of the proposed alliance (the full ruling was released on 16 May 2005).

On 18 April 2006 Air New Zealand and Qantas sought approval from the New Zealand Minister of Transport (application WBM) and the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (application and submissions WBM) for approval for a Tasman Network Agreement (TNA). Further information relating to the New Zealand application was available on the Ministry of Transport's International Air Carriage Competition WBM page. The applications were subsequently withdrawn.

Aviation industry organisations

• Aviation Industry Association of New Zealand (AIA/Aviation New Zealand) - Wellington 

• Board of Airline Representatives New Zealand (BARNZ) - Auckland

• NZ Air Line Pilots Association 

• Federation of Air New Zealand Pilots 

• Aviation and Marine Engineers Association 

• E Tu - union

Travel, tourism and cargo industry organisations 

• Tourism Export Council of New Zealand - was ITOC

• Travel Agents' Association of New Zealand  

• Tourism Industry Association New Zealand 

• Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Federation of New Zealand 

History

Two reports for the Government had a major influence on how civil aviation administration developed in New Zealand:

• Report of the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Mission 1948 (H-37A) - known as the Tymms report

• Swedavia - McGregor Report: Review of Civil Aviation Safety Regulations and the Resources, Structure and Functions of the New Zealand Ministry of Transport Civil Aviation Division WBM - April 1988

Two weblogs worth following:

• 3rd Level New Zealand 

• New Zealand Airline History 

To Flying in New Zealand 

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Last updated on 29 November 2025