New Zealand News

The airline initiated services in July 1987 with early series Boeing 737s, one then nearly 20 years old. Today the twinjets are virtually worthless and parked at Christchurch International Airport while all Ansett jet passengers now travel in British Aerospace 146s. Ansett New Zealand also plans to increase its North Island operations, most likely to Hawke’s Bay and Waikato. The airline also hopes to fly internationally but that depended on clearing closer economic cooperation guidelines, said Mr Smith. Ansett NZ’s external relations manager, Mr Brian Lockstone, said revenue in the six months since last June was a “record for us and our market share is rapidly increasing. He said the airline believed it has captured close to 50% of its market, including a “very good share” of business traffic.

Ansett has also made moves toward some commercial cooperation with its main rival, Air New Zealand, with suggestions the two airlines interline on ticketing, but Air New Zealand has declined to take part in such a joint scheme. However both airlines are united in one matter – air traffic control fees which have not been paid in full for several months. The Airways Corporation increased its monthly fees by 6. 5% in October. The chief executive of the Airways Corporation, Mr Andrew Makin, hopes the matter will be settled, saying the corporation did not want to issue ultimatums but the bills had to be paid. The money the two carriers owe to the corporation runs into many thousands of dollars.

Battle for Passengers

Air New Zealand, followed a few days later by Ansett New Zealand, gave domestic travellers a belated Christmas present – cheaper domestic fares for several weeks.

Air New Zealand has also announced plans for a second Auckland/Bali service, taking off April 3. The airline says that since its first service in September, Bali has grown to be the most popular Asian destination of New Zealanders. According to Air New Zealand’s general manager (passenger sales and marketing), Mr Tony Marks, more than 12,000 New Zealanders went to Bali last year. The airline will also introduce three more flights to Japan in April, which will be jointly shared with Japan Airlines. Air New Zealand’s Boeing 767s will fly Auckland/Nagoya return on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays, bringing the total number of flights between the two countries to ten a week. The airline now flies to Tokyo five times weekly; Japan Airlines has twice weekly services from Tokyo’s Narita.

Air New Zealand Also Hit by Big Losses

The airline recorded a bottom line loss of $NZ26. 6m for the six months ended September. The forecast for the full year, at best, has been put at “just breakeven. ” Air New Zealand started the new year with a ‘new look’ – six new business units as well as fewer staff. Last August the airline, which celebrated its 50th birthday in May, had 9,300 employees. Today, with about 850 gone in the last six months, the total is close to 8,400. The last 250 made redundant got their notices a week or so before Christmas. Air New Zealand’s chief executive, Mr Bob Matthew, has said the airline will be “streets ahead” of rivals by the middle of this year, adding that the airline had suffered from a lag factor in its cost recoveries. Shareholders were told late last year that patience would bring its reward. Some airline staff have already been rewarded – promoted to positions in one of the six business units. These are international airline operations, domestic airline operations, engineering services, air cargo, catering and computer and information services.

One service no longer available to Air New Zealand provincial passengers is transport by Fokker Friendship. The airline ceased its 15 strong F27 services last August and has been advertising their sale. One international aircraft broker says some could fetch more than $NZ3 million each, depending on the amount of work the buyer wanted done on them. The F27s are stored at Christchurch airport.

At the same time as Air New Zealand ceased F27 services, it closed the airline operations of a subsidiary, Safe Air, based 320km north of Christchurch. Safe Air had provided an 800km Christchurch/Chathams Island link. Today the Christchurch or Wellington service to the Chathams is provided by another Air New Zealand subsidiary, the Mount Cook Airline. MCA uses Hawker Siddeley 748s, the one way fare from Christchurch or Wellington being $NZ342.

Homosexual Airline Staff in News

Air New Zealand has openly discriminated against homosexual staff members, a Human Rights Commission has found.

A report by the proceedings commissioner, Mr Peter Hosking, said the airlinehad discriminated against homosexual staff when giving out travel perks and the matter was to be taken to the Equal Opportunities Tribunal. He said six complaints involving a number of homosexual airline employees and other staff who also had missed out on perks would go to the tribunal.

While the commission could not investigate complaints concerning discrimination on the grounds of a person’s sexual orientation, Air New Zealand had withheld travel privileges for homosexuals because they were not married. The matter was therefore being treated as discrimination on the grounds of marital status. Mr Hosking also said the travel perk scheme had long attracted complaints because it benefited only the direct family of heterosexual couples.

Military Aviation Pilot Sgo East and West

The Royal New Zealand Air Force is sending some pilots to Australia and others to the United States.

Six of the air force’s fleet of 21 Skyhawk fighter bombers will be based at Nowra, NSW for five years from March. The RNZAF’s chief of air staff, Air Vice Marshal Peter Adamson, signed an agreement for No 2 Squadron’s 53 personnel and six A-4K Skyhawks at Ohakea air base in the North Island to be based at Nowra. The aircraft, primarily an anti-shipping weapon, will work with the Royal Australian Navy to provide its. ships with air defence training. . :.

The RNZAF also says it will send pilots to the USA for training on Hercules transports as higher fuel costs and the Gulf crisis tie up RNZAF aircraft and flight crew. The air _force pilots will be trained by a private company at its C-130 flight training centre at Marietta, Georgia. The first eight pilots and flight engineers from No 40 Squadron, at Whenuapai, Auckland air base, will soon attend a five week training course. The RNZAF has three senior flight crews and two of the squadron’s five Hercules flying supply missions in Saudi Arabia and the remaining personnel were under pressure to train and perform normal operational tasks. RNZAF spokesperson Flight Lieutenant Diana Hales said the decision to contract the training to the private American company was based on cost effectiveness and rising fuel prices. The two RNZAF Hercules and personnel at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia are working alongside the Royal Air Force.

Rnzaf’s First Woman Navigator

The RNZAF’s first female navigator is Flying Officer Sarah Nicholson who graduated as the top student in her training course at the Wigram air force base, Christchurch. She was one of 14 aircrew and engineering graduates and only the third woman aircrew member to graduate since the air force lifted its restriction on female aircrews in 1987. F/O Nicholson, of Hamilton in the North Island also broke new ground by winning the Astrolabe Trophy for the navigator with the highest marks. She also won the RNZAF Sword of Honour. She will serve on Orion aircraft.

A Tail of Two Tails

The RNZAF’s first jet aircraft was the de Havilland Vampire, characterised by its twin boom double tail, noisy fuel guzzling engine and silver colour.

A fully restored Vampire – built at Bankstown, near Sydney, in 1957 – has ‘hopped’ the ‘Ditch’ to New Zealand. Because of the jet’s meagre fuel capacity, a stopover on Norfolk Island and a high level westerly jetstream were essential. A private syndicate has bought the Vampire. The jet was flown to New Zealand by Bill Scott, former RAAF pilot and John Peterson. The Vampire has been registered ZK-VAM; the jet was based for several years at RAAF Pearce in WA with No. 25 (F) Squadron. It is the first to be flown in this country since the type was retired from military service in the mid 1970s, being replaced by the Strikemaster. Meanwhile plans to buy 18 Italian Aermacchi MB. 339 jets to replace the RNZAF’s aging Strikemaster fleet are to be reviewed as part of plans to cut Government spending. The national government has decided to cut a further $NZ197m from defence spending.

Meanwhile, the RNZAF’s VIP flight, which operated from the Woodbourne air force base near Blenheim, in the South Island, has been grounded. Twenty six aircrew and ground staff have been transferred to other units and the three Cessna Golden Eagle aircraft are to be sold. The flight, formed in 1984, ferried VIPs, including Royal Family members and the Governor General and members of Parliament around this country. Last September the Labour Government, defeated in the October elections, said the VIP flight would be axed as part of budget cuts.

The service was the first flying unit to be based at Woodbourne for 40 years. (Australian pioneer pilot Charles Kingsford Smith took off for Australia from near Woodbourne in 1928 after making aviation history by flying the Tasman to Christchurch. His time to Christchurch was 14hr 25mins; the return trip took just under 23 hours. A Woodbourne air force mechanic, Ray Lynskey, has also flown into the record books – he was the first person in the world to cover more than 2,000km in a glider on the same flight. He covered 2,026km in 15 hours, beating the existing record by more than 500km.