The airline was established and started operations in 1920 at Timaru by Rodolph Lysaght Wigley, who in 1906 had driven the first motor car to The Hermitage. Wigley bought five war-surplus aircraft for sightseeing and formed the NZ Aero Transport Co., the first company of its kind in the country. The first aeroplane to land in Fairlie was a war surplus bi-plane E 4242 in May 1920 still with the RAF roundel on the fuselage. Passenger and freight routes served areas between Wellington and Invercargill. On October 1920 with Captain J. C. Mercer, Wigley flew on the first one-day flight from Invercargill to Auckland. After a series of mishaps, e.g. damage to landing equipment during forced landings in paddocks, the company went into liquidation in 1923.

In the 1930s, Wigley formed Queenstown - Mount Cook Airway in conjunction with his son, Harry, later to become Sir Henry Wigley. Sir Henry 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.

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