Changes to departure and arrival times from May had not satisfied anyone and had led to a loss of confidence in the service, Mrs Dean said yesterday However, she has not given up on having an air service to Oamaru and plans to talk with the Waitaki District Council and Waitaki Development Board to see what can be done.
Eagle Air, which began its Oamaru operation in August 2006, announced on Tuesday the twice a day air service between Oamaru and Christchurch would finish from January 1.
The service was no longer viable due to weak demand, it said.
Mrs Dean said the schedule change put in place in May "did not satisfy anyone".
"It was not one thing nor the other. It did not suit the business traveller, who wants to get out early, nor those travelling to see friends, relatives or on holiday," she said.
Mrs Dean, as a regular user, had noticed "a considerable drop off" in use of the service after the change.
There had also been a loss of confidence in the service because of the changes and reliability.
"My greatest fear throughout this whole process has been that if we lose the air service, it will take a considerable amount of work to get it back again," she said.
However, one hope she held was that if Holcim (New Zealand) Ltd decided to build its new cement plant near Weston, and Meridian Energy its new power scheme on the lower Waitaki River, then that would involve hundreds of workers during the construction phases and 120 permanent jobs at the cement plant.
"That will bring a considerable amount of traffic into Oamaru. Had we been able to keep the service going that would have had a major beneficial impact," she said.
It was a shame Eagle Air had decided to end the service because it would affects business decisions, visitors and tourism.
However, she acknowledged it had been a hard decision for Eagle Air, made on the basis of commercial viability.
