Early history It was founded on 30 June 1979 by Robert Inglis and Nicki Smith as a flying school and charter services with the name of
Motueka Air. In 1988 it was renamed to Air Nelson and acquired by
Air New Zealand operating under
Air New Zealand Link name. It initially operated as a small commuter airline in the top half of the South Island, linking Nelson and Wellington with up to half-hourly services. It also provided isolated towns such as
Takaka and
Motueka with a convenient and safe service to the outside world. At this time aircraft included
Piper PA-31 Navajo,
Fairchild Metro, and
Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante. In 1986, Air New Zealand announced it would start to scale back its
Fokker F27 Friendship operations and smaller regional centres were the first affected. Air Nelson services immediately replaced the F27 on those routes. Air Nelson grew their network at the same time and started operating non-stop service to
Auckland, complementing F27 services. Air New Zealand purchased a 50% stake in Air Nelson (and a 50% stake in
Eagle Airways) in 1988 to secure the airline's support when deregulation saw the arrival of
Ansett New Zealand. A at
Auckland Airport in November 2005 on the tarmac at
Hawke's Bay Airport in November 2005 Air New Zealand suspended all F27 services in August 1990 and Air Nelson responded by introducing the
Saab 340. Initially the Saab 340 wore Air Nelson colours, before all Air Nelson's fleet were repainted in Air New Zealand's 'Link' livery. The Saab fleet soon grew to one of the largest in the world at that time and Air Nelson divested itself of its smaller aircraft, operating only the Saab. This was in line with Air New Zealand's policy of rationalising the overall cost of fleet maintenance. Eagle Airways soon operated a fleet of
Beechcraft 1900Ds, while
Mount Cook Airlines operated the
ATR 72-500.
Full Air New Zealand ownership Air New Zealand took 100% ownership of Air Nelson in 1995. The last Saab 340A aircraft had been withdrawn from service by the end of 2007. The company had 23 Dash 8 Q300 aircraft. Air Nelson was the largest singular operator of the Q300 outside Canada. Although Air Nelson looked towards
ATR for the smaller
ATR 42, Bombardier offered a better discount for a bulk purchase. The increase in fleet size allowed Air New Zealand to start pioneering longer provincial routes that were considered sustainable with 50-seat aircraft, such as Wellington to Invercargill, New Plymouth and Tauranga to
Christchurch. Air New Zealand has also used the Q300 to ramp up a more intensive high-frequency regional service allowing more departure choices. A new
Paraparaumu to Auckland route was started in 2011. A second route from the Kāpiti Coast was opened in 2013, Paraparaumu to Christchurch, but it could not be sustained and the short-lived service ceased in 2015. The
Hokitika–Christchurch route joined the Air Nelson network as a result of the Pike River coal mine disaster in November 2010 when Air New Zealand added capacity to the Westland town. This became permanent in February 2011 when subsidiary operator
Air National was grounded by the NZCAA due to irregularities with operating practises. The larger aircraft proved popular on peak services to the West Coast airport, which also serves the town of Greymouth. In November 2014, Air Nelson started to take over services from fellow subsidiary Eagle Airways after parent company Air New Zealand had announced the close-down of the airline by August 2016. Routes including Auckland–Taupō, Auckland–Whanganui, Hamilton – Palmerston North, Wellington–Gisborne, Wellington–Timaru, Wellington – Palmerston North and Christchurch–Blenheim joined the Air Nelson network as a result of Eagle Airways' closure. Air New Zealand immediately reviewed and closed down the Auckland–Hamilton, Auckland–Whanganui and Christchurch–Blenheim routes. Some routes were picked up by second-tier operators. In 2018 Air New Zealand announced that the Auckland–Paraparaumu route was to close due to aircraft scheduling issues. After intense lobbying by local authorities,
Air Chathams took over the route with a Saab 340 airliner in September 2018, with Air New Zealand leaving behind ground servicing equipment for the airline to use.
End of operation and merger On 19 November 2019, the merger of Air Nelson took place, with their pilots and fleet moving to the
Air New Zealand air operators certificate and the airline ceasing to operate, these aircraft are now also operating under the
Air New Zealand callsigns (NZxxxx), furthermore removing the old RLK ICAO code. Despite the company no longer operating its own aircraft, Air Nelson Ltd continues to employ over 100 Flight Attendants, who operate the Dash 8 Q300 on behalf of parent company Air New Zealand. On 19 May 2025 Air Nelson's remaining staff, the Dash 8 Q300 Flight Attendants, transferred to Air New Zealand bringing the story of Air Nelson to a close. ==Destinations==