Freedom Air (legally ''Freedom Air International'') was a New Zealand

low-cost airline A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (occasionally referred to as '' no-frills'', ''budget'' or '' discount carrier'' or ''airline'', and abbreviated as ''LCC'') is an airline that is operated with an especially high emphasis on minimizing op ...

which operated since 8 December 1995 to March 2008. It was part of the

Air New Zealand Air New Zealand Limited () is the flag carrier airline of New Zealand. Based in Auckland, the airline operates scheduled passenger flights to 20 domestic and 30 international destinations in 18 countries, primarily around and within the Pacif ...

Group which ran scheduled passenger services from

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

to Australia and Fiji and charter services within New Zealand. Its main hub was

Auckland Airport Auckland Airport is the largest and busiest airport in New Zealand, with over 21 million passengers in the year ended March 2019. The airport is located near Māngere, a residential suburb, and Airport Oaks, a service hub suburb south of th ...

History

The airline was established in 1995 as a response to the commencement of discount services between Australia and New Zealand by

Kiwi Travel International Airlines Kiwi Travel International Airlines was a New Zealand based airline which pioneered discount flights between secondary airports in Australia and New Zealand in the mid-1990s. The airline was established by Ewan Wilson and several associates. ...

and started operations on 8 December 1995 with a single Boeing 757-200. It was ordinally formed as South Pacific Air Charters by Mount Cook Airline and renamed to Freedom Air International in 1998. By 2004, its fleet had expanded to five

Boeing 737-300 The Boeing 737 Classic is a series of narrow-body airliners produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the second generation of the Boeing 737 series of aircraft. Development began in 1979 and the first variant, the 737-300, first flew in Februa ...

aircraft and it was providing direct non-stop services to the Australian cities of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

, Sydney, Cairns and

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

from Hamilton,

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

and

Palmerston North Palmerston North (; mi, Te Papa-i-Oea, known colloquially as Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatu Plains, the city is near the north bank of the ...

. Flights to Fiji were also operated. It briefly operated on the

main trunk domestic routes such as Auckland–Christchurch, but ceased these services to concentrate on providing value

trans-Tasman Trans-Tasman is an adjective used primarily to signify the relationship between Australia and New Zealand. The term refers to the Tasman Sea, which lies between the two countries. For example, ''trans-Tasman commerce'' refers to commerce betwee ...

flights. In June 2006, the aircraft from Freedom Air were combined with Air New Zealand's fleet of Airbus A320-200 under the

air operator's certificate An air operator's certificate (AOC) is the approval granted by a civil aviation authority (CAA) to an aircraft operator to allow it to use aircraft for commercial purposes. This requires the operator to have personnel, assets, and system in plac ...

of Zeal320, which was then the sole operator of the Air New Zealand Group's Airbus fleet. When the airline ceased Zeal320 had one aircraft painted in Freedom Air livery. As such, Freedom Air has no aircraft or current air operator's certificate, and Freedom Air is no longer an operational entity. Air New Zealand ceased all Freedom Air operations from the end of March 2008.

Destinations

Throughout its existence, Freedom Air flew to six destinations in New Zealand, five in Australia and one in Fiji. When the airline shut down on 30 March 2008, all services were replaced by

flights, with the exception of flights out of

, which left the airport without any international services. Flights to Nadi and

were withdrawn prior to 2008. * **

( Brisbane Airport) **

(

Gold Coast Airport Gold Coast Airport (formerly known as Coolangatta Airport) is an international Australian airport located at the southern end of the Gold Coast and approximately south of centre of Brisbane, within South East Queensland agglomeration. Th ...

) **

(

Melbourne Airport Melbourne Airport , colloquially known as Tullamarine Airport, is the primary airport serving the city of Melbourne, and the second busiest airport in Australia. It opened in 1970 to replace the nearby Essendon Airport. Melbourne Airport is ...

) **

( Newcastle Airport) ** Sunshine Coast ( Sunshine Coast Airport) ** Sydney ( Sydney Airport) * ** Nadi ( Nadi International Airport) * **

(

) Hub **

(

Christchurch Airport Christchurch Airport is the main airport that serves Christchurch, New Zealand. It is located to the northwest of the city centre, in the suburb of Harewood. Christchurch (Harewood) Airport officially opened on 18 May 1940 and became New Zea ...

) **

( Dunedin Airport) ** Hamilton ( Hamilton Airport) **

( Palmerston North Airport) **

(

Wellington Airport Wellington International Airport (formerly known as Rongotai Airport) is an international airport located in the suburb of Rongotai in Wellington. It lies 3 NM or 5.5 km south-east from the city centre. It is a hub for Air New Zealand an ...

)

Fleet

Freedom Air had operated the following aircraft:

References

External links

Freedom AirFreedom Air picturesDetails on AviationPage New Zealand
{{Airlines of New Zealand Air New Zealand Defunct airlines of New Zealand Defunct low-cost airlines Airlines established in 1995 Airlines disestablished in 2008

History

Destinations

Fleet

See also

References

External links