Thunder Jet and sister operation Queenstown Water Taxis are on a list of the top 50 fastest-growing businesses in New Zealand, as ranked in the Deloitte Fast 50 indexIt is the only tourism company to have made the index for 2013.
It ranks businesses according to their revenue growth over the previous three years; to make the list, companies must show a growth of at least 161%.
Thunder Jet was established in 2009 by Neville Kelly and was last week the subject of a resource consent hearing seeking to extend its route from the confluence of the Kawarau and Shotover Rivers to the upper extent of Tucker Beach.
It has also applied to increase passenger numbers to 34 per trip for two existing resource consents which at present allow for 19 and 23.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council recommended the application to extend the route should be refused due to potential safety issues.
The only official opposition came from rival jet-boat operator Kawarau Jet Services Holdings Ltd (KJet).
Following submissions and evidence from Queenstown Water Taxis Ltd, trading as Thunder Jet, and KJet in opposition, the hearing was adjourned last Wednesday pending a written right of reply from Queenstown Water Taxis.
Thunder Jet was nominated for the Deloitte Fast 50 by financial adviser Martin Hannagan of Heartland Bank and in September the company won the award for fastest-growing retail and consumer product.
Mr Kelly said to be the only tourism company in the top 50 was an ''outstanding achievement''.
''There are plenty of tourism activities on offer in Queenstown, so it takes a great deal of time and effort to build recognition of who we are and what we do, not only within the FIT [Free Independent Travel] consumer market but also for groups, tours and the C&I market [corporate and incentive].''
In the past year the company acquired a high-speed twin-engine Mackraft jet-boat.
While Thunder Jet offers passengers high-speed rides on the Kawarau River, Queenstown Water Taxis runs a scheduled service between the Hilton Hotel and Kawarau Peninsula to downtown Queenstown and shuttle services for golfers, trampers, film crews and kayakers to other destinations.
