Air Travel (NZ) Limited, a small airline based in Hokitika, was the first airline in New Zealand to fly licensed scheduled air services. They took delivery of their first De Havilland biplane aircraft at the end of 1934 and made it their business to carry passengers, mail and freight to remote parts of the West Coast. Their ambulance services were particularly welcome. They were well known outside their region for taking tourists to the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers.
Immediately following the Second World War all New Zealand's air services were nationalised. The equipment and staff of Air Travel joined those of Union Airways in the new government-owned New Zealand National Airways Corporation but Air Travel's aircraft and their routes kept a separate identity for some long time.