16 Mar 2018

Norfolk Airlines shuts down just a year after launch

11:08 am on 16 March 2018

Norfolk Island Airlines makes its final flight tomorrow just a year after being launched.

Norfolk Island

Norfolk Island Photo: Wikipedia

The airline was set up to ensure direct flights to New Zealand continued after Air New Zealand stopped flying that route.

It was also flying to Brisbane.

Prohibitive taxes meant the airline discontinued the New Zealand flights in January and the last Brisbane flight is on Saturday.

The chief executive, Glen Buffett, said they found the raft of expenses resulting from Canberra's direct control of the island too onerous.

"Within the system changes here there are lot of things imposed in the last year that we weren't aware of and in trying to deal with those one by one and in the end it's just proven to be too difficult and not sustainable," said Glen Buffet.

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