The Corporation's total staff was 2,223. Gross assets were valued at £10,528,780. Operating revenue for the year ended 31 March 1964 was £6,223,340, providing an operating profit of £282,140, producing a net profit of £18,069.

The Corporation provided a comprehensive network of services throughout the country, as is shown in the accompanying map. The extension of New Zealand National Airways Corporation's services to smaller centres of population, and on subsidiary routes, was not complete; this was due not only to normal economic considerations but also to aerodrome limitations and the granting of licences to private operators to serve such routes.

New Zealand National Airways Corporation carried 836,151 passengers (one-way trips) in the year ended 31 March 1964, and 16,265 tons of freight (311 million passenger-miles and 4·2 million freight ton-miles). 82 per cent of the Corporation's revenue was earned from passenger carriage, and 12 per cent was from freight.

New Zealand National Airways Corporation's operations are of a short-haul nature, the average passenger haul being only 263 miles.

South Pacific Airlines of New Zealand, a privately owned company, began operations in December 1960 with two Viewmaster aircraft–DC3s with very large viewing windows and other modifications. Ansett Transport Industries of Australia owned 49 per cent of the shareholding and there were many small New Zealand shareholders. The company's aims were stated to be the provision of services to areas inadequately served by the National Airways Corporation and the development of tourist travel. During its first year of operations the company budgeted for, and made, a substantial loss. During this year, however, the Air Services Licensing Authority granted the company an extensive network of scheduled services and the right to increase its fleet to five DC3 aircraft.

Straits Air Freight Express Ltd., a subsidiary of British United Airways (of the United Kingdom) provided all freight services under contract to New Zealand Railways, the company's sole customer. The principal operations were high-frequency short-haul services across Cook Strait, thus providing a vehicle ferry and an air link for freight between the rail systems of the North and South Islands. In the year ended 31 March 1964 the company's fleet of six Bristol Freighters carried 39,132 tons of freight.

Non-scheduled, air-taxi, and air-charter services, together with topdressing and other aerial work, employed 108 small private firms throughout New Zealand. The aircraft engaged were small. Aero clubs (40) which employed 127 aircraft, engaged in commercial services to a substantial extent.

Whilst these smaller operators accounted for only a minor share in the normal air-transport services, many of them were engaged in aerial topdressing, which is of outstanding importance in New Zealand. In the year ended 31 March 1964, 746,795 tons of fertiliser and lime were distributed by air throughout New Zealand, and 2,116,730 gallons of insecticides, fungicides, and weedkillers were sprayed from the air.