New Zealand News

The RNZAF aircraft are 24 years old, but by no means the longest in service around the world. There was conjecture that the huge climatic range in which the aircraft had worked in recent years had caused the problem. Meanwhile, Air Force engineers were outfitting one sound aircraft with stress sensors for a test flying program in an effort to pinpoint the source of problems.

Air New Zealand Profit

Air New Zealand announced an after tax profit of $100. 9m (all $NZ) for the 1989/90 year, compared with a predicted profit of $95. 8m made at the time of last year’s public float.

However, the actual operating profit was $46m, a result the airline’s chairman, Mr Bob Matthew, expressed disappointment about. Abnormal items included a$28. 7m profit generated from asset sales including aircraft sales, and a $15. 3m gain from a change in depreciating accounting policy. The one aircraft sale one Boeing 737-200, realised$19. 5m, making an abnormal gain after tax of $14. 1m (the aircraft is still in the airline’s fleet on short term lease back). The Australian domestic airline pilots’ dispute was believed to have shaved some $20m off Air New Zealand’s total profits and higher than expected fuel costs cut another $1Om. ‘ 747-4 Industrial superficial which delayed terms little introduction net effect on of the profits, Boeing Mr

Matthew said. Not having the aircraft had been largely offset by revenue from leasing it to Cathay Pacific. The· company had abandoned attempts to reach an agreement with the NZ Airline Association over flying the -400s and was instead negotiating crewing arrangements directly with the pilots over the next aircraft, due in October.

Looking to the next year, Mr Matthew predicted that with additional 747-400s coming on stream, loading on international routes would improve. He said directors were disappointed to see the airline’s shares trading between $1. 75 and$1. 90, significantly below the October 1989 share float of $2. 40.

Carvairs to Hawaii

Two Carvair freighters – flown in the 1960s by Ansett Airlines, among others – are to spend their geriatric years humping fruit and vegies inter-island in Hawaii. The first left New Zealand in June and the second was scheduled to leave in August.

The bulbous-nosed DC-4 conversions were parked at Hamilton Airport for eight years, maintained under storage by Pacific Aerospace. The 45 year old aircraft were purchased in the 1970s by the now-defunct airline, Nationwide, which intended using them to fly cars between the two main islands. Not surprisingly, the venture never got off the ground.

In 1986, a Melbourne company, Gold Crown Aviation, planned to use the aircraft on interstate freight services. It paid a deposit on the aircraft and its pilots logged some 30 familiarisation hours before this deal fell apart. A Hawaiian company, Turner Aviation (now wound up) eventually sold the Carvairs to fellow Honolulu company, HawaiiPacific Air. But the troubles weren’t yet over – one of the old Wright Cyclone 2000 engines packed up soon after the start of the first delivery. Pacific Aerospace’s general manager Andrew Hyde, said four replacement engines had been ordered from the US to ensure delivery of both aircraft.

Warbirds Over Wanaka

Warbirds Over Wanaka, an airshow held every two years in the southern mountain town by that name, looks to become the country’s most popular airshow. The last WOW pulled in more than 28,000 spectators from over a vast and sparsely populated area. By contrast, the big Ardmore Air Show held on the doorstep of populous Auckland (with more than one million at hand) managed to draw only 17,000 people.

Undoubtedly the Wanaka show’s attraction lies partly in its grass roots nature: it mixes vintage and veteran aircraft with a sizable range of rural and military ground equipment. There is less of a commercial element and (though on a bucolic and much smaller scale) something akin to Oshkosh and the Confederate Air force’s Harlingen. This year’s Wanaka saw a range if wartime aircraft perform, including Tim Wallis’ repaired Spitfire, a P-510 Mustang, Sea Fury, T-28C Trojan, the Warbirds’ Harvard aerobatic team and a DH Venom. The Warbirds’ Harvard team, known as the Roaring Forties, has earned itself special distinction in the form of an invitation from the Confederate Air Force. The Auckland based Roaring Forties Is to share the top aerobatic billing at the CAF’s Air Show ’90, at Harlingen. The other team billed in the top spot is the USAF’s F-16 Thunderbirds.

In Brief

• Recently acquired by the RNZAF Museum’s restoration facility at Wigram is the wreckage of Douglas Dauntless NZ5037 recovered from Vanuatu. Work is also proceeding on an F4U-5 Corsair, a largely rebuilt Catalina flying boat and Lockheed Hudson NZ2013 which is nearing the point where engines and electronics can be fitted.

• Talks were scheduled in June between the Minister of Defence, Mr Peter Tapsell and his Australian counterpart, Senator Ray, over plans to station six RNZAF A-4 Skyhawks and their crews at Nowra (refer p. 10 AA 5/89). The scheme was first mooted early last year and was initially planned to come into being in July 1990.

• Government proposals to ease congestion at Wellington Airport by designating Paraparaumu Airport (50km north) as the capital’s general aviation airport have met with heated opposition from smaller airlines. The general manager of Capital Aviation, Mr MikeJensen, threatened to ‘fight like mad’ if smaller airlines were forced out of Wellington.

• Flights between Auckland and Niue were set to resume in July. In 1988, the New Zealand Ministry of Transport revoked the certificates of three Air Nauru Boeing 737 jets, thus 1solat1ng Niue. Now a private company, Niue Airlines, has reached agreement with Solomon Airlines to provide a weekly return service between Niue and Auckland.

• Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer was to raise the issue of setting up a single aviation market between Australia and New Zealand when he visited Canberra in July for discussions on closer economic relations. However, Air New Zealand, which was pressing for access to the Australian domestic routes following Ansett’s entry in New Zealand, is opposed to an open market at this stage. Chief executive, Mr Jim Scott, pointed out the difficulty of publically owned airlines, such as his own, competing against Government owned companies (Qantas, Australian Airlines) outside the rigid structure of a Two Airline Policy.