NZ Aero Transport Co. was established in 1920 at Timaru by Rodolph Wigley, who in 1906 had driven the first motor car to The Hermitage.

[1] In 1935, Wigley formed Queenstown - Mount Cook Airway in conjunction with his son Henry, who remained the managing director of the airline until 1979 and chairman until his death in 1980.

The company operated charter flights around the Otago Lakes, Milford Sound and Mount Cook regions, until it was suspended by World War II.

Flying resumed in 1952 using an Auster J1-A Autocrat, registration ZK-BDX (since preserved, formerly inside the terminal of Queenstown Airport now at the Mount Cook Hermitage Hotel Edmund Hillary Centre).

[2] In 1954, NZ Aero Transport Company was reformed as Mount Cook Air Services Ltd, specialising in scenic flights, agricultural work and rescue missions.

This is how the Ski Plane operation started, aimed at taking tourists to skifields and glaciers in ski-equipped light aircraft.

A bid was made and finally accepted on 31 December 1967 with the company becoming part of Mount Cook Airlines on 1 January 1968.

[1] In June 2001, Air New Zealand Group added extra capacity on domestic routes by introducing four BAe 146s to supplement the ATRs.

[7] Air New Zealand purchased part of the Mount Cook Group in the 1980s after Henry Wigley's death.

At the time it ceased operations, Mount Cook Airline operated ATR 72-500 and ATR 72-600 aircraft from main cities to larger provincial towns and also on some main trunk routes, complementing fellow subsidiary Air Nelson's smaller capacity Q300 aircraft.

The -600 model is a further development of the type including a revised cabin layout and RNP navigation to allow flights into New Zealand's more marginal weather dependent airports such as Wellington, Queenstown, Rotorua and Hamilton.

DC-3 aircraft were also used at various dates for services from Christchurch to Timaru and Oamaru, Queenstown to Alexandra and Dunedin and an extension from Te Anau to Invercargill.

The HS 748 fleet was replaced by 7 ATR 72-200s from 1995 after an evaluation process that included the Fokker F50, BAE ATP, and Saab 2000.

[15] A second Twin Otter (ZK-MCO) was purchased in November 1983 for services between Auckland, Kerikeri and Rotorua as the HS 748 was too big for the loads on offer, but Mount Cook's Islander aircraft was too small.

[22] The airline's symbol was the Mount Cook Lily which was displayed on the tails of its aeroplanes prior to the integration with the Air New Zealand link brand in the mid 1990s.