Kiwi Regional Airlines has received regulatory approval to fly the week before the airline takes to the skies.
Chief executive Ewan Wilson said the Civil Aviation Authority air operating certificate allowed the airline to operate commercially, reaching the requirements to operate large aircraft as a commercial airline.
Mr Wilson said the company was the first airline in more than a decade to be issued such an approval by the CAA.
It was not unusual the certificate came so close to the airline's start date of next Tuesday, as the process involved a ''proving flight'' a week before the take-off date.
That was done on Monday.
Mr Wilson described gaining the certificate as ''a huge achievement''.
''The extensive vetting required of our people, our aircraft, our procedures and our training to attain this has been exhaustive and I'd like to give full credit to all our staff and the CAA for the lengths they go to, to ensure we operate to the highest standards.''
The airline's scheduled flights include direct flights between Dunedin and Queenstown, Dunedin and Nelson, and Nelson and Hamilton.
Mr Wilson said bookings for the flights between Dunedin, Nelson and Hamilton were ''just superb''.
However, for Dunedin to Queenstown, they were ''poor'' at this stage. While it was early in the airline's launch, aircraft would shift to other routes if they not profitable.
