Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has given Air NZ a serve over its decision to cut more regional flights.

Air New Zealand has hit back at Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones' criticisms of the company saying it would "always act independently of the Crown".

The strongly worded statement from Air NZ chairman Tony Carter is in response to Jones warning the company they needed to stop cutting regional flights and his attack that Kiwis got better treatment from second hand car dealers than the country's national airline.

Earlier on Tuesday Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern defended Jones' comments and said, "ministers, particularly with a regional focus, will have an opinion".

KEVIN STENT/STUFF Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it's up to Air NZ to make commercial decisions on flights but it doesn't mean her ministers don't have opinions.

"That doesn't mean that we have any ability or intent to take away the independent decision-making of a business like Air New Zealand," she said.

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Her comments came after Jones delivered a blunt warning to Air NZ's regional affairs manager, Ian Collier, at the Bay of Islands Airport near Kerikeri on Friday.

ROSS GIBLIN/STUFF Kāpiti residents were upset at the news that Air New Zealand canned flights from Kāpiti Coast Airport.

Jones told Collier: "don't keep closing down regional air links. And take that message to your supervisors".

Jones is furious about the announcement earlier this month that the airline is ending flights to the Kāpiti Coast, which comes after flights to Kaitaia were axed in 2015.

Jones' comments to Collier were made at an event where the Government announced $1.75 million towards the $4.75m cost of building a new terminal near Jones' Kerikeri home.

Carter has written to Minister of Finance, Grant Robertson, reinforcing that the airline will always act independently of the Crown, regardless of the fact it had 51 per cent shares in the airline.

"Any appearance of a lack of commercial independence is viewed seriously by the Air New Zealand Board and is ultimately potentially damaging to the interests of all shareholders, including the Crown," Carter said.

Robertson said Air NZ will make decisions about regional airlines and he didn't think "anybody will be surprised Shane Jones is advocating strongly for the regions".

He said the concerns about the reduction of regional flights are not new and the Government will continue to work on helping the regions "thrive".

Jones is encouraging mayoral leaders to approach the government with "solutions" and he wants to see a policy that ensures flight connectivity in the regions continues.

"The immediate solution lies with (Air NZ). They've taken a strategy to increase profit by downgrading provinces and you can't tell me that they haven't done that."

He said former prime minister Sir John Key was on the Air NZ board and was in a position to "change the strategy and priorities".

Air NZ should "put their money where their mouth is" when it comes to supporting provincial providers, Jones said.

"My whole phone has been clogged by our fellow Kiwis ringing with tales of woe from the provinces. I mean the sad thing is whilst they're a brand promoting New Zealand to the rest of the world, in respect of servicing...it's not good enough."

Jones said regional NZ got better treatment from second-hand car dealers than Air NZ.

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said there wasn't the same "political oversight" for Air NZ as other state-owned enterprises because it's 49 per cent privately owned.

"The people on the board were put there by the previous Government and you'd think they'd be looking at New Zealand's total interests across the country, including the regions."

Peters is speaking with the board all the time and says it's "very important for us that if we're going to put money into a big future in Kerikeri, that the airline's being serviced to the numbers that they want".

"That infrastructure is critical if we're going to get tourism in the North."

Ardern said the decision to cut flights was for Air NZ and it remains their decision, Jones was just expressing an opinion.

"I don't think it would have come as any surprise to hear that from Minister Jones at all."

She said the government had a role to play in some of the infrastructure projects in the regions but it's "not for us to make decisions that are ultimately commercial ones for Air NZ, whilst we may of course have the opinion that we want things to improve, not get worse," she said.

National regional economic development spokesman Paul Goldsmith was reluctant to weigh in on Air NZ's decision despite the National Party having a petition to keep the Kapiti flights going.

"Obviously you'd expect the local member to be advocating vigorously for his local community. I'm just saying that every commercial industry needs to operate on commercial lines," Goldsmith said.

"It's up to Air NZ to deal with their arrangements. Parts of regional New Zealand should be well served by Air NZ and they have to work through whether particular regions stack up.

"I would hope, particularly in Kapiti, they'd think very carefully before they cut down in that area."