The general manager of Air Chathams says the airline will ask all passengers to wear face masks on future flights as it looks to recover from Covid-19.
Duane Emeny this morning told TVNZ 1's Breakfast that Air Chathams was doing about 120 scheduled flights each week, prior to the lockdown period, but that dropped to just six flights per week.
"A lot of people probably don't know, but Air Chathams does a lot more than just fly to the Chatham Islands," Mr Emeny said.
"We also link Auckland to the eastern Bay of Plenty - Whakatāne, Wanganui and the Kapiti Coast, plus we also do scheduled cargo flights between Auckland and Wellington."
He described the lockdown as "a huge blow" to the airline, but Level 2 will mean the airline can start to rebuild it routes, including by asking all passengers to wear masks.
"Social distancing's a bit of a hot topic at the moment in aviation," Mr Emeny said.
"We're keen to see the onus put back on the airlines to provide a safe environment for our passengers.
"We're going to make it compulsory to wear face masks - we've looked at what other airlines are doing internationally and we feel that's a safer way to provide that protection to our customers.
"Social distancing is fine when you're talking about Boeing 747s and Airbus A320s, but when you're talking about 18f Metroliners - it becomes a challenge."
Mr Emeny said Air Chathams had been able to access Ministry of Transport funding for essential freight services, which had been "enough to keep us in a hibernation mode.
"But now we will need more support, and that's why we are talking to our district councils firstly - but we really would like to see a pro-active approach from central government to support these councils to support their regional air service providers."
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