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AIR NEW Zealand is under fire from farmers for pulling out of some regional routes.
From April the airline will suspend services: Kaitaia - Auckland; Whakatane - Auckland; Whangarei - Wellington; Taupo - Wellington; Westport - Wellington and Palmerston North - Nelson. Hamilton - Auckland will also be suspended from February 2016.
It is also shutting down subsidiary, Eagle Airways, which operates 19-seat airplanes on regional routes; according to Air NZ, Eagle Airways has been losing $1 million per month for the past two years.
But Federated Farmers leaders in affected regions are unimpressed; some have also blasted the Government for failing to stop the routes from being axed.
Kaitaia is a typical example of how National will not support Northland, according to Federated Farmers Northland provincial president, Roger Ludbrook.
"I am sorry for Kaitaia and sorry for MP Mike Sabin. He is a good man who has not been able to effect Air New Zealand's decision because Northland National MPs have no power or influence in parliament.
"Kaitaia is just a provincial town that Wellington will allow to die, because they need the votes not from the provinces but from the urban centres. So that is where resources will be spent.
"This move by Air New Zealand is a short sighted tragedy, because New Zealand's spending is done in the cities, whereas wealth is created in this country from provincial townships like Kaitaia.
"It will just make it more difficult for people to do business in Kaitaia and the Far North, meaning more businesses will leave and creating new businesses will become even harder."
He says Air New Zealand has slammed another nail in Northland's coffin.
"And our Labour and National politicians have shown how weak they are to do anything about it," Ludbrook says.
West Coast Federated Farmers provincial president, Katie Milne, says the elimination of the Westport to Wellington service is "just another step in the quiet deterioration of New Zealand's outlying rural areas.
"I know it's tough for Air New Zealand to budget for these services, but once they are gone it's just so difficult to turn around and get these provincial services back again.
"You might say the Coast still has the Hokitika service to Christchurch, but that service is often disrupted by bad weather, and even at the best of times it's the long way round to get to Wellington," says Milne.
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