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September 16, 2025 5 mins

The Government wants to see more careers in the aviation sector take off.  

It's launched the first ever aviation strategy which is designed to future proof the sector, and promote tourism and economic growth.  

Associate Transport Minister James Meager says he wants to make it quicker and easier for people to train while keeping standards high.  

He told Mike Hosking there are some barriers which need to be looked at.  

Meager says it costs about $100 thousand to train and it's slower than other countries. 

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Aviation thirty million for regional airlines. Told you about that
the other day. Of course, now we've got the Big
Aviation Action Plan twenty five areas to grow in future,
proof of sector, reducing certification waiting times, expanding drone use,
boosting regional airlines, making wider use of a hockey at airbase.
James Meager is the Associate Minister of Transportant is back
with us. James Morning, Morning, Mike. Is this a fix,
a revolution or a bit of a prod.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
I think it's somewhere in between the three. If that's
a thing. It'll fix some issues, but it also a
little bit future looking about advanced aviation. How do we
get better use out of drones. How do we make
use of our brilliant innovators to make sure we grow
and have a really successful aviation sector. So it's a
little mix of the three.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
You were concerned about all you've been told to be
concerned about the rising cost of doing business in New Zealand.
Does this change any of that.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
There is a section in there around actions that the
government and industry can take to look at costs and all,
of course all those costs get passed on through the
airlines through to customers. So there's a costs piece in there.
There's a review of CAAA how it's funded, and there's
also a view of eay's levies too, So there is
a part in there when you look at the certification rules.
If we can make things certified more quickly, that's going

(01:10):
to reduce costs of those operators and eventually that'll flow
through the consumers as well.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Okay, the workforce and retention of pilots, will things change materially?
What's the whole up with pilots that people don't want
to be a pilot? Is it too expensive? Is the
what's going on?

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Again, it's a mix of both. It is quite expensive
to be a Pilot's about one hundred thousand dollars to train.
It takes slightly longer to train here in New Zealand
and say some of our comparable jurisdictions overseas. So we're
going to look at how do they train their pilots.
Is there anything we can do to change our qualification
framework to make it easier and faster to train maintaining safety.
That means those pilots can get out in the workforce,

(01:45):
pay off their loan more quickly and have the opportunity
to work, So that's part of it. There's also engineers
other service delivery aspects as well.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Is there a loan cap somebody told me this morning
there's a loan cap on training to be a pilot.
Is that true?

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah, there is. It was put in place I think
over a decade ago, and it reflects the fact that
there was a large cost furden on barring to the
commercial pilot and there are statistics that showed that it
took quite a while for those loans to be paid back.
So that hasn't changed in a few years. And the
industry has called for that to be looked at, and
that is part of the action plan.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
But are we looking or are we doing well?

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Realistically, that is a financial cost, and there's always trade
offs when you've got those financial costs. If we can
amend the way that the training is delivered and train
more pilots here think those training pilots into the workforce,
they can pay down their loans more quickly. It's in
the mix. It's probably not the solution to the overall
problem though.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Okay, oh haki, what's that about? Being open for business?
Twenty four seven was that not available to us anyway.
I mean, what's it doing when do they close it?
Like five o'clock or something.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Well, it's primarily a defense for space, but every airline
that comes into the country has to have a backup
or a sort of an alternative runway. In case, say
Auckland Airport is close. Now, the wide body aircraft such
as like the likes of Katar Airways would like to
use Ohaki as a backup, but because it's not available
twenty four seven, and because a lot of their flights
come in so early hours of the morning, they couldn't

(03:07):
use that. Therefore they had to go down to christ Church,
which meant they had to reduce the size of their
planes hopeless. Yeah, and so we're looking at what can
we do to convert o'harkia to be available twenty four seven.
That's really around air traffic control and accessibility to foreign
emergency services. It's a big opportunity because if we can
get more big wide body planes in here, then we
can boost our tourism and grow our economy.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
In New Zealand. Will assess what it's needed or what
is needed for a fleet expansion, jet fuel demand and
electricity for next generation aircraft? Why is that included? And
here given that they'd already do this anyway, wouldn't they?

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Well, any ger were part of the Aviation Council, and
I think they wanted to emphasize the fact that they
are doing this work and they will continue to do
this work. It's one of their big challenges is how
do they get more planes, more parts, and how do
they make sure that they've got a fleet that is
fit for future travel and that includes I guess electric
aircraft at some point. So it really was just a
round for what he going to do.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
Do you honestly believe James is going to be electric?
I mean short of a four person plane that can
fly from Auckland to Corrimandel. Maybe no one's flying to
London on an electric plane.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, so I mean in nineteen oh three, when Richard
Pierce first flew down into Murcer, I think no one
really thought that the planes were up in there in
the first place. So look, time will tell, and if
it only ends up being that it's something that we
ship freight on, or if that it's uncruey aircraft, and
so be it. But it's worth looking into, and they
are trialing a few flights across the cook straight at
the moment for freight purposes. So it's something that's in

(04:33):
the mixt But I think realistically the future of aviation
over the next couple of decades is going to be better, faster, quieter,
more sustainable aircraft and that's probably chip fuel.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
All right, mate, nice to talk to you. Appreciate it
very much. James megro I like the cut of his GYBN.
It's not just because he's from Canterbury, Associate Minister of Transport.
I mean, I don't necessarily agree with this, and I
don't know that anything's necessarily going to come of it.
I hope it is, but he seems to be on
top of his portfolio. It did remind me of the
story very Sober got angry with me. He was many
years ago. He was shipped off with a New Zealand
to Hawaii because of a looking at nut oil, remember

(05:04):
the famous nut oil story. And in New Zealand are
going to start flying planes on the nut oil, and
so they needed to fly Barry them along with the
whole cacophony of other journalists to go look at some plantation,
a few palm trees and write some stories about the
nut le Where's the nut oil? Hey, where's the nut oil?

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Right? Here?

Speaker 1 (05:19):
Was that teen years ago? Fifteen years ago I said
berries on a berries on a junket and he goes,
not a junket. There was absolutely not a junket. Where's
the nut oil? He ain't? No, and flying on nut oil.
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