On May 9, Air Nelson reassured customers that it is putting contingency plans in place to minimise the impact of a proposed strike by members of the EPMU.

General Manager John Hambleton said the proposed strike from May 24 had been well signalled by the EPMU.

"Naturally, we are disappointed that the EPMU has chosen to take this action, especially after Air Nelson had gone to considerable lengths to engage with the union via negotiations and mediation. Quite simply, the union's behaviour during this process has left us perplexed," Mr Hambleton said.

"For example, it has indicated publicly it has been seeking a 5% pay increase for members in the first year of a two-year deal and then lifted that to 5.8%. In our view, that falls well short of good faith bargaining and demonstrates the union doesn't really know what it wants. Furthermore, contrary to union claims the airline is not proposing the removal of long service leave," he said.

"In fact, we are proposing to increase the long service leave provision, so find the union's perspective quite difficult to understand given we have communicated our proposal in writing and verbally."

Mr Hambleton said that EPMU claims there has been an erosion of pay and skills at Air Nelson are nonsense.

"The EPMU seems to conveniently lose sight of the fact that Air Nelson is proposing to increase its members' base pay by around 3.5% per annum (plus potential productivity incentives) over three years and invests considerably in the training and development of its people to ensure they are able to provide the type of service to grow the airline and in turn the Nelson economy," he said.

Air Nelson has grown staff numbers from around 400 in 2005 to 462 now.

"If the EPMU did work with us constructively, we would have a better chance of growing Air Nelson more quickly, so we could employ even more people and fly thousands more customers into and out of Nelson to boost the local tourism industry," said Mr Hambleton.

Air Nelson has recently spent more than NZ$400 million on new Q300 aircraft to boost capacity into and out of Nelson and other regional centres. The airline carries more than 500,000 customers into and out of Nelson annually and contributes more than NZ$20 million annually in wages and contract services to the local economy.