Wine flights ready to take off

A special visitor touched down on the tarmac at Hawke’s Bay Airport yesterday – and the high-flying plane will soon be connecting the country’s biggest wine-producing regions. A group of wine-industry representatives was given a test flight in the nine-seater Pilatus PC12 plane, which is set to fly direct between Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough. Sounds Air managing director Andrew Crawford said his company was in the “final stages” of sealing the deal with Hawke’s Bay Airport, with the service proposed to start in early August.