New Zealand's only aircraft manufacturer is looking overseas again. NZAero has already begun building five new CT-4 Airtrainers as growing demand for pilots across Southeast Asia creates a potentially significant opportunity for New Zealand's advanced manufacturing sector.
eLocal Report: Based on reporting by John Weekes, Senior Business Reporter for the NZ Herald, published 21 August 2026. Read the original report HERE
The NZAero CT-4 Airtrainer, made in Hamilton. The Kiwi company is now eyeing up export markets as demand for pilot training grows. Photo / NZAero.
New Zealand-Made Aircraft Heading Overseas Again
Waikato-based NZAero says it is restarting export production of its CT-4 Airtrainer for the first time in 14 years as New Zealand strengthens its aviation and commercial relationship with Thailand.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul were expected to sign a new aviation agreement at Ardmore Airport. It follows an agreement for maintenance NZAero signed with Thai Aviation Industries two years ago.
The earlier agreement covered the exclusive supply of parts as well as collaboration to expand Thai Aviation Industries' capability to service and repair government aircraft in Thailand. It built on a long-established relationship between New Zealand aviation manufacturers and Thailand. NZ Herald
The new agreement was expected to broaden aviation co-operation between New Zealand and Thailand across maintenance expertise, personnel development and training, technical support and long-term planning for spare parts and engines.
NZAero chief executive Stephen Burrows told the Herald there was growing demand for pilot training worldwide.
NZAero has already begun building five new CT-4s and said the agreement could generate tens of millions of dollars in export revenue over the next three years.
Burrows said a combination of expanding pilot demand, a limited number of competing aircraft and new technology in the CT-4 created an opportunity for the Kiwi company to secure international market share.
NZAero said the Royal Thai Air Force currently operates 25 CT-4 aircraft, including 19 CT-4Es, which the company was in discussions to modernise. About 70 New Zealand-manufactured aircraft have been exported to Thailand over the decades.
The CT-4 Airtrainer is a fully acrobatic, piston-engined aircraft. Photo / NZAero.
Technology and the Next Generation of Pilot Training
NZAero is also investigating partnerships with New Zealand technology companies to incorporate AI analysis of flight and cockpit data into a new-generation pilot training system.
The Hamilton-based company also manufactures the SuperPac 750XL-II, designed for extremely short take-off and landing, while its five-seater E-350 is also in production.
NZAero says Southeast Asia alone is forecast to require around 62,000 new commercial pilots by 2044.
Burrows said that would increase demand for specialist training aircraft needed to develop pilots before they progressed to more sophisticated platforms.
The company's manufacturing operation is unusual by New Zealand standards. NZAero has previously said it produces its aircraft largely in-house at Hamilton, from shaping metal components through to final painting, buying in specialised components such as engines, propellers and avionics.
The NZ Herald previously looked inside NZAero's New Zealand aircraft manufacturing operation HERE
From Pacific Aerospace to NZAero
The company's roots stretch back through several generations of New Zealand aviation manufacturing. The operation now known as NZAero was acquired by private investors in 2021 after Pacific Aerospace entered liquidation.
Its manufacturing lineage reaches considerably further back. James Aviation's post-war aviation operations eventually helped establish aircraft manufacturing in Hamilton, including production of the CT-4 Airtrainer.
The survival of the present operation matters because aircraft manufacturing represents precisely the sort of technically sophisticated, high-value production New Zealand has repeatedly sought to develop.
Rather than exporting a raw commodity for someone else to add value to, aircraft manufacturing brings together engineering, precision manufacturing, avionics, specialist skills, maintenance and intellectual property within New Zealand.
NZAero and its predecessor companies have sold hundreds of aircraft internationally, with aircraft operating across dozens of countries.
The Waikato-based company hopes to start making more aircraft for export. Photo / NZAero.
Thailand Partnership Expands
New Zealand and Thailand are marking 70 years of diplomatic ties, with the aviation agreement forming part of a broader effort to strengthen commercial and strategic relations between the two countries.
Luxon and Charnvirakul formally launched the broader New Zealand-Thailand Strategic Partnership in Auckland before examining aircraft at Ardmore Airport near Manurewa. Charnvirakul is a pilot and Luxon is a former Air New Zealand chief executive.
Luxon said the aviation agreement reflected the growing depth of New Zealand's relationship with Thailand and the opportunities available to Kiwi exporters.
Advanced manufacturing and aerospace are particularly significant because they offer New Zealand an opportunity to export high-value finished products rather than relying predominantly on traditional commodity exports.
The relationship between NZAero and Thailand is already well established. An earlier agreement signed in 2024 provided for hundreds of parts for Thailand's CT-4 training fleet as well as maintenance collaboration, with NZAero saying at the time that it could increase New Zealand aviation export earnings and support additional skilled employment. NZ Herald
Christopher Luxon at South Auckland's Ardmore Airport today. Photo / Dean Purcell.
Direct Flights and a $13.5 Billion Trade Target
The relationship extends beyond aircraft manufacturing.
Both countries said they would support efforts to resume direct flights between Thailand and New Zealand.
Luxon's office said both leaders welcomed Thai Airways' planned resumption of direct flights "in the coming year", although at the time of the source report it remained unclear exactly when Bangkok-Auckland services would return.
The two leaders also said they wanted to triple two-way trade to $13.5 billion by 2045.
For NZAero, however, the opportunity is already taking physical form in Hamilton.
Five aircraft are being built.
Does This Affect New Zealand?
Very directly.
New Zealand has spent decades wrestling with low productivity and the challenge of developing higher-value exports. NZAero represents a practical example of what moving further up the value chain can look like: sophisticated products designed and manufactured domestically and sold into international markets.
The important question now is whether the opportunity converts into sustained commercial results.
NZAero says the agreement could generate tens of millions of dollars in export revenue over the next three years. That provides some straightforward outcomes against which the story can eventually be measured: aircraft ordered, aircraft manufactured, export revenue earned and skilled New Zealand employment supported.
If those orders materialise, the economic benefit extends beyond a single Hamilton company. Aircraft manufacturing requires engineers, technicians, component suppliers, avionics expertise, maintenance capability and specialist training.
Current Relevance
The immediate significance is that this is no longer simply a proposal.
Five new CT-4s are already being built.
The next measures to watch are confirmed orders, production volumes, export receipts and whether increased international demand leads to expansion of NZAero's Hamilton operation.
Long-Term Relevance
The larger opportunity lies in aviation growth across Southeast Asia.
If the region does require around 62,000 additional commercial pilots by 2044, those pilots will require training before progressing to larger and more sophisticated aircraft.
That potentially creates a long-term market not only for training aircraft, but also maintenance, replacement parts, upgrades, technical support and training systems.
NZAero's investigation of AI-assisted analysis of cockpit and flight data adds another dimension: the potential for New Zealand technology and aircraft manufacturing to become part of the same export ecosystem.
Historic Relevance
New Zealand aircraft manufacturing has survived several difficult chapters.
The industry's Hamilton lineage reaches back decades, while NZAero's present operation emerged after Pacific Aerospace entered liquidation in 2021. Previous reporting on the company records that its new owners specifically wanted to retain aircraft manufacturing capability in New Zealand.
Restarting CT-4 export production after 14 years therefore represents more than another trade announcement.
It is an opportunity to see whether a small New Zealand manufacturer can rebuild a sustainable international market around specialist aviation products made in Waikato.
The production line is moving.
Now the outcome to watch is whether five aircraft become fifty.
Source
John Weekes — Senior Business Reporter, NZ Herald — 21 August 2026
Original NZ Herald report HERE
Independent reporting. Original context. Credited sources.