New Zealand News

Air New Zealand also announced that commencing July 20 it would usher in its new domestic operating format. ANZ will dedicate 3 of its 10 Boeing 737-200s to a new all-economy configuration designated as City Savers. These would be operated as special frills services at all hours of the day offering an across-the-board discount of 25% off standard economy. Additionally, ANZ was upgrading its full fare services with the remaining 737s being configured in a 28-seat Business (Pacific Class) and 69-seat economy configuration. Business Class will attract a 20% fare surcharge (vs Ansett’s 50% for First), and feature 36in pitch and a full meal service while standard economy will also feature 33in pitch and improved catering. In this way Air New Zealand feel they have been able to successfully cater to both the discretionary leisure traveller, the full-fare economy passenger and also to the high yield Business clientele.

For the public, the most visible sign of the competitive build-up was a series of highly comparative advertisements appearing on television. Television New Zealand warned that the ads were becoming so punchy that some could be rejected because they breached corporation rules forbidding denigration of a rival. At least one Air New Zealand ad was being withheld from the screening.

By far the most acerbic ads were those of the local carrier which poured scorn on Ansett’s failures to make its opening deadlines (“Twinkle, twinkle little star, now we wonder where you are,” rang out one infant chorus).

However, in an unusual postscript to Air New Zealand’s annual report, managing director Norman Geary expressed satisfaction with Ansett’s failures to get underway on time. As a result, negative effects on Air New Zealand had been delayed and the airline had benefitted from having extra time before feeling the impact on its business, he said. He went on to take a swipe at Ansett.

“Nonetheless, the physical manifestations of over-investment resulting from the introduction of a second airline in such a limited marketplace are now very evident in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. What New Zealanders are already seeing are some of the inefficient implications of Australia’s two airline policy, including the unnecessary provision of separate terminals and therefore duplication of capital expenditure.

“While there will be short-term consumer benefits due to what will clearly be a competitive battle for the market, the over-investment created with dual airline operation will result in much 400 higher costs long-term. The customer will ultimately have to pay much higher airfares to meet those costs than would have been the case without the second airline. ”

Vale Nationwide

Some airlines merge and others slowly go broke. Nationwide Air chose simply to get out of business while it was making money.

New Plymouth-based Nationwide, the longest-running of the smaller scheduled airlines, and long upheld as the model of financial and operational stability, ceased operations in July. Charles Haywood, the founder and manager of the 19-year-old company, refused takeover offers by others – “both enthusiastic amateurs and those with the financial wherewithal” – and set about selling off the airline’s three Piper twins – an Aztec, an Aerostar 600A and a Chieftain.

Haywood told Australian Aviation he had simply “had a gut- full”. After 35 years in the flying business and a fully paid-off capital investment of about $3 million, he’d come to the conclusion that the returns were not worth it. Nor were pilot problems, rising costs and hassles with the big competitor, Air New Zealand.

Mr Haywood said his “reawakening” began with a recurring shortage of pilots. “I was left with one apart from myself. When I began totting up the turnover, I found that over ten years we’d lost 15 experienced pilots to the larger airlines. We were virtually a holding tank for pilots between recruiting drives by the big companies. ” He then took stock of rising costs: airways dues up this year from 4% to 7% of revenue, local city council fees and rentals up from 3% to 5% of earnings, etc.

Air New Zealand, flying F27s had put the squeeze on by matching his schedules on the bread-and-butter Auckland route, Haywood claims. “There was no let-up. ” Ánd, as Haywood sees it, there was a bullish stock market which made the return on any small airline investment seem like chicken feed. Nationwide’s departure leaves only two comparable airlines in the North Island, Eagle and Bell Air, and does nothing to boost deregulation’s image as a seedbed for enterprise.

Airways Funding Still Confused

More than two months after the formation of an Airways Corporation and the remodelling of a much reduced Civil Aviation Division, confusion still exists over the funding of these bodies.

Both were intended to recoup costs under the user-pay principle. The Airways Corporation, with its responsibility for air traffic control, telecommunications, navigational aids, rescue fire services, etc, appears to have had a few switchover problems in billing the airlines. But general aviation is another matter.

Small-scale and private owners have roundly condemned a proposal to levy an annual registration fee of $1300 and have even suggested that VFR operators could get by well without the traditional services. Similar suggestions of autonomy have come from glider pilots and amateur aircraft constructors.

In truth, there appears to be little in the way of a reasonable breakdown in GA cost sharing in the corporation’s books – and a developing environment of confrontation. The Civil Aviation Division (flight standards, airworthiness, airport security, etc) appears to be more accepting of consultation, and less demanding since its budget only amounts to about $19 million.

In aviation circles, irony is detected in the fact that while the Australian Department of Aviation is abandoning a user pays system of individual charges in favour of a fuel levy on all avgas- powered GA aircraft, the New Zealand corporation seems intent on introducing a system based on the previous Australian model. Unfortunately, the new setup precludes the simple solution of recouping through a fuel tax on GA aircraft. Taxes can only be levied by Governments and not by companies or corporate bodies.

Drinking and Flying Don’t Mix

Drinking and flying don’t mix – even when the pressure goes on for humanitarian reasons. This sad fact was highlighted in July during the inquest of a reluctant pilot who was persuaded to undertake an emergency medical flight. The commercial pilot, Derek Alan Covell, was killed along with the other two occupants of a Piper Aztec when it crashed into a 1000-metre peak near Wellington last February.

Department of Scientific and Industrial Research evidence furnished to the Lower Hutt coroner showed 20 milligrams of alcohol in every 100 grams of muscle tissue in the pilot’s body. The report said the true level was probably higher at the time of the crash.

It appears that late on the night of the crash, company director Murray Willis contacted the well-known Wellington rescue pilot, Peter Button, and asked if Button would fly him down to Christchurch to pick up his wife and return her to Wellington for urgent medical treatment. Button’s aircraft was away at the time so he telephoned Kiwi Air and put the request to Covell. “Mr Covell was at first reluctant, but because of the seriousness of the situation he agreed,” said Button. Apart from passenger Willis, Covell took his flatmate, Ross Gadd, as a copilot.

The coroner’s court evidence aroused alarm and a flurry of questions in aviation circles. The Director of Civil Aviation, Air Commodore Stuart McIntyre refused to be pressured into a reconsideration of drinking-flying rules or the introduction of detection measures. New Zealand follows the international standard for commercial pilots of no alcohol within 24 hours of flying. “This was quite adequate and anybody had the right to bale up a pilot if it was suspected this rule had been breached”, said McIntyre.

As yet, conclusions over the crash cause may well be premature. The official air accident investigator’s report has yet to surface, and there is evidence of a technical problem. Minutes before the accident Covell reported a fault in the port engine or propeller and said he intended breaking his flight from Paraparaumu to Christchurch to land at Wellington.

Rnzaf Evaluating Pc-9 Amidst Growing Aircrew Shortage

Emerging – with some backing from the Government – as a possible RNZAF trainer of the future is the Pilatus PC-9, now going into service with the RAAF. An RNZAF evaluation team left for overseas in July on a ‘survey’ for possible Strikemaster replacements.

Continuing fatigue problems dog the 15 operational Strikemasters of No. 14 Squadron and they are due for replacement by 1990. Fatigue problems are also catching up with the RNZAF’s basic trainers, the CT-4 Airtrainer, necessitating a cut-back in hours flown. These aircraft are not expected to remain in service beyond the late 1990’s.

While the RAAF considers the PC-9 a ‘primary trainer, some haziness attaches to the role in which the RNZAF would utilize the machine. The urgency to find a replacement for the pure jet Strikemaster advanced trainer, means that ideally, the Service would like to slot the PC-9 into its place. However, it is agreed that a big question mark still hangs over the Swiss turboprop’s capabilities for strike transition training.

On the other hand, there is little doubt the PC-9 could adequately cover much of the work the Airtrainer is being opted out of. While there is much to be said for a single training aircraft, the availability of machines with sufficient stretch between roles continues to preoccupy the Service.

Meanwhile, the RNZAF is again experiencing one of its cyclical, three-year, shortages of aircrew. The 238 pilots and navigators presently in the service are rated as the minimum required. Aircrew have been put on the critical manning list and those contemplating leaving the service must give two years’ notice.

As in former years, the shortage is largely due to civilian recruiting of aircrew. The RNZAF says it can do little to compete with the enhanced financial prospects a pilot might eventually expect to join Air New Zealand (RNZAF maximum about $40,000; Air New Zealand maximum $138,000), but it is working on ways to retain personnel, including less frequent postings and upping the minimum service time from six to eight years.

Briefs

Legal action against Sydney computer programmer Boyd Munro, who won the Singapore/Christchurch Air Race, was dropped in late June. Mr Munro, who was awarded a $50,000 Tiger Moth and $20,000 cash, had his name removed from the action after a hearing in the Christchurch High Court. However, the four race pilots who brought the action are still naming as defendants in the case three involved in the race organisation: pilot Thomas Middleton, the Canterbury Aero Club and Christchurch’s airport authority. The complainants allege flaws in the handicapping system used in the race.

• Lufthansa expects to decide next May whether it will match Air New Zealand in mounting an Auckland/West Germany service. The German airline is reserving a block of seats and cargo space on Air New Zealand’s Frankfurt services, to begin this November, and will be monitoring demand. The airline has been planning a twice weekly service to Auckland from 1990, but could advance the date if traffic required.

• Following joint action by airline pilots and air traffic controllers, Mr Frank Baldwin, the chief executive of the new Airways Corporation announced that tenders for an updated air traffic control system would be called before the end of the year. Under the joint action, controllers will now handle a maximum of six aircraft in terminal control areas around main airports and a maximum of eight in surrounding area control zones. Pilots will no longer request non-standard approaches, routes or altitudes, previously sought to cut flight time and fuel consumption.