The problem was their plan was a great one, but was very poorly executed.

QF poached Grant Kerr from Air Nelson for one reason only - his knowledge of the regional business (although the court didn't agree when NZ tried to enforce his restraint of trade clause) to head up Propstar. Unfortunately for them it was right around then that QF were so in the red with their massive loss that expansion in NZ was put on hold by the board.

The 12 - 18 month delay launching Propstar gave Air NZ the perfect opportunity to completely restructure their regional business and gave them a massive edge since a lot of the knowledge Kerr had was now out of date.

With the merging of many Air Nelson and Mt Cook back end operations they pretty much are now a single entity and are vastly more efficient than they were even a year ago.