Regulations could shut down NZ air sports operators
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New regulations could close down adventure sports operators in Queenstown, New Zealand. The Civil Aviation Authority has issued new rules for airborne sports like paragliding and hang-gliding, which will be costly when they take effect in November.
Russell Read of Picton, Vice President of the New Zealand Hang Gliding & Paragliding Association, told Scene magazine; “There’s going to be a net loss of adventure paragliding services to tourists nationwide because of those [compliance] costs. They’re pretty unreasonable and there will be quite a large attrition rate, I’d suspect, of operators closing down.”
The new regulations are intended to bring commercial paragliding, hang gliding, ballooning, skydiving and gliding more into line with mainstream aviation. Depending on the activity, operators must adhere to a range of protocols including safety checklists, daily flight records, passenger weigh-ins to safeguard load limits, air speed indicators, back protection devices, protective clothing, flight examiner and instructor ratings, and medical checks for pilots.
The cost of licensing is NZ$7,600 plus another NZ$1,000 per year for other compliance measure. Operators are unsure how to responds to the additional costs because raising rates on already expensive products could price them out of the market. ?
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