Kiwi Regional Airlines SAAB 340A

Kiwi Regional Airlines (KRA) was a short lived regional airline based in Hamilton that lasted from October 2015 and July 2016. It was founded by businessman Ewan Wilson, who had previous endeavours in aviation, having served as CEO of Kiwi International. Kiwi Regional commenced operations on 27 October 2015 using this SAAB 340A(QC) pictured (recreated) above, registered as ZK-KRA, which would be their only aircraft they operated. They had plans to operate another SAAB 340AQC (Quick change) but for both passenger and freighter operations. ZK-KRA was sold to Kiwi Regional by Polish airline SprintAir when it was registered as SP-KPG. Before that, it had operated for a number of airlines. The plane was originally delivered to Finnaviation as OH-FAA in 1986, to which it was operated by Finnair from 1995 up until 1998.

The airline flew between Hamilton & Nelson, Nelson & Dunedin, and Dunedin & Queenstown, with flights between Nelson & Tauranga being added in Q1 2016. The flight between Dunedin & Queenstown was dropped by the time December 2015 rolled around due to low passenger booking numbers.

On 17 June 2016, the airline announced that their operations would be wounded up by August 2016, and on 30 July 2016 that's exactly what happened. Before this date, however, Kiwi Regional and Air Chathams agreed that the aircraft and most of the staff would go to Air Chathams, with the plane being sold to them for an undisclosed amount.

Once the day of 30 July 2016 rolled past, another airline was added to the list of New Zealand regional airlines that didn't make it.

ZK-KRA: 1986 SAAB 340AQC | Kiwi Regional Airlines | Currently: In active service with Air Chathams (with the same registration, ZK-KRA)