Air Safaris (NZ airline)

Air Safaris

IATA ICAO Callsign – SRI AIRSAFARI
Founded	1970 (1970)
Hubs	Lake Tekapo
Fleet size	8
Destinations	5 (charter)
Headquarters	Lake Tekapo, New Zealand
Key people	Tim Rayward (Managing Director) Richard Rayward (CEO)
Website	http://www.airsafaris.co.nz/

Air Safaris is a New Zealand scenic flight and air charter company based at the Lake Tekapo Airport located 2.8 km west of the town of Lake Tekapo, off State Highway 8 in the Mackenzie District of New Zealand. The airline operates from 3 bases the Lake Tekapo, Franz Josef and Glentanner/Mt Cook airports. The company logo is a stylised chamois; these are wild goat-like antelope which inhabits the region of the South Island High Country.

Air Safaris was established in 1970 at Mesopotamia station to take hunters and hikers into the mountain areas of the South Island. They moved their operations to Lake Tekapo in 1974.

The company has used a wide variety of aircraft: first the Cessna 180, then later the larger Cessna 185, and in 1975 the Cessna 206 and 207. In 1978 the Pilatus Porters arrived fitted with skis that could land and take off on glaciers and snowfields and as demand increased for scenic flights, the 15 seat GAF Nomad entered the fleet in 1981 for use at Lake Tekapo, Glentanner, Franz Josef and Milford Sound airports. On 17 December 1987 the airline purchased Air Timaru and continued to run its services from Timaru to Oamaru and Invercargill using a Piper PA31 Navajo aircraft. Air Safaris were the first company in New Zealand to buy the Gippsland Airvan in 2009.

From 1991 to 1996 one of the Nomads was used from Timaru to fly the Air Nelson scheduled service to Christchurch as part of their Air New Zealand Link operation. The contract was for Air Safaris to provide two week day return services, Air Nelson also used them between Christchurch and Hokitika and Mount Cook Airlines for flights south of Christchurch as a back up capacity although all these services have since been discontinued.

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Wikipedia