Air Chathams Community Connection Fund - Air Chathams
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Air Chathams Community Connection Fund

At Air Chathams we’re all about getting behind our communities. Helping locals and visitors get to and from Whakatāne, Whanganui, Kāpiti and the Chatham Islands is at the heart of that, of course. Another way we support our regions is through our Community Connection Fund. The fund offers a limited number of free and discounted flights every quarter to events, groups and individuals doing great things for our communities.

We’re looking for applications that do something good for the communities we fly to.

So applications need to spell out a real benefit for our communities in Whakatāne, Whanganui, Kāpiti or the Chatham Islands:

Arts and culture: 
Supporting the cultures that make up the community.
Examples: a kete-weaving wānanga, Irish dancing competition or writers’ festival.

Wellbeing: 
A project that supports the mental or physical health of the community.
Examples: a prize in a community fun run, bringing a health expert in to speak to a group.

Economic:
Something that supports small business and employment.
Examples: bringing a performer to an event where ticket sales and other activity will go to the local community, sending students to a tech or business event.-

Environmental: 
Supporting a conservation project or environmental education.
Example: travelling to a conservation conference, bringing in an expert to support a local project

NOTA: None Of The Above! We’re sure there’ll be applications that don’t tick these exact boxes, and we’ll consider those too. The main thing is that the community gets something out of it.

How to apply

Fill out the form below. Our team reviews and votes on requests every three months (end of March, June, September, and December) and announces the recipients a couple of weeks after that. Everyone who applies will be emailed to let them know whether or not they’ve been successful, so there’s no need to chase us up.

Tip: the most important thing we need to know is how the community you’ll be flying to or from will benefit. 

 APPLY HERE 

FAQs

Why have you shifted to this quarterly setup?

We want to make sure we support the requests that will do the most good. Reviewing them every three months means our team can look at them side by side and make a fair decision.

It also means our small team spends less time processing sponsorship requests and more time getting you where you need to go!

How many flights will this involve?

 That depends on the capacity we have to each destination. We need to make sure paying passengers can get to and from our destinations, so there’ll be times when sponsorship flights are limited.

Can I get bumped?

No – once you receive a sponsored flight it’s treated the same as any other booking, right down to the in-flight Tim Tam. (You can still always get mucked around by weather or aircraft availability though… that’s air travel!)

What if I can’t wait three months?

If you fit our criteria but the timing doesn’t work, you can still apply, but you’ll be less likely to be successful.

What if I don’t fit the criteria?

Please apply under the NOTA (None Of The Above) category and we’ll still consider your application.