New Zealand News

The Defence Ministry’s annual report also says that the ministry has been investigating ways to resolve problems with the airframes and engines of its Italian built Aermacchi training jets. The cost of the recovery programmes has been met by the suppliers. Good progress was being made on fixing the airframes. “There are, however, some persistent problems in relation to the engine from Rolls-Royce, which are targeted for resolution by the end of 1994,” the report says.

Nine Die In ‘copter Crashes

Nine people have been killed in two Squirrel helicopter crashes within a month. Seven died in late October when a Squirrel operated by the Helicopter Line crashed near Fox Glacier, in southern Westland, South Island, on a 20 minute sightseeing trip. Four were Thai tourists. There were no survivors. Two weeks earlier a Squirrel crashed into the sea off Coromandel in the far north of the North Island, killing two. Late last year nine people, including six German tourists, perished when their Nomad crashed into the Franz Josef glacier not far from the Fox glacier.

Catalina Finally Touches Down

After a 20,000km flight from Harare, Zimbabwe, a 50 year old Catalina flying boat landed at New Plymouth airport, lower North Island, 13 days after starting the journey. The $NZ320,000 PBY5A Z-CAT is the latest addition to the New Zealand warbirds fleet. The Canadian built, World War II patrol bomber will now go on a nationwide tour. The aircraft was escorted over Auckland by two Harvard trainers and a deHavilland Devon carrying Catalina Club members. An attempt earlier this year to get a Catalina to New Zealand failed when the aircraft sank in the Pacific following a nighttime emergency landing after engine trouble. All on board were rescued by a container vessel.

Auckland Airport’s Big Profit

A tax paid operating profit of $NZ33.27m was achieved by Auckland International Airport Ltd in the year to June 30 – $NZ11m more than in the 15 months to June, 1993. The latest result included an abnormal $NZ4.99m profit from the sale of a subsidiary, Auckland Radio 1476 Ltd. The airport company’s total income was $NZ106.62m and passenger numbers for the 12 months exceeded six million for the first time – 6,017,360.

The chairman, Sir Laurence Stevens, said the passenger numbers represented growth of 5.2% for international travellers, 12.7 for domestic and 7.6 overall compared with 1992-93. In spite of the withdrawal of Continental Airlines in October, 1993, international aircraft movements were almost the same as last year. Total aircraft movements were up 5.2% to 115,000. The airport company, 51.6% owned by the Government, with Auckland City Council holding a 25.8% share, will be involved in major developments in the next three years. Work on the $NZ115m expansion to the existing international terminal is well underway. Key elements of the expansion – enlarged check-in and meeting and greeting facilities, better baggage handling and increased Customs processing areas – will be ready in just over a year. The total terminal area will be increased by almost 40% with public areas being increased by more than 50%.

The Wellington Airport Company also recorded a huge rise in profit for the year to June 30 – up 41.1% to $NZ4.16m. Total revenue was up 6.6% to $NZ22.98m. Landing charges were slightly lower at $NZ13.54m. Total passengers were up 6.2% to 3.1m while total aircraft movements were up 2.3% to 79,707.

Mp Accuses Airline

A member of Parliament attacked Air New Zealand in Parliament for allegedly letting Polish engineers work at Auckland airport for less than a quarter of the pay of New Zealand airline engineers. Mr Steve Maharey, the industrial relations spokesman for Labour, also accused the Immigration Service of allowing fully qualified engineers to work here “under the guise of training”. He said 17 engineers and six administration staff were doing maintenance on a Polish airliner alongside New Zealanders earning at least four times as much.

The engineers were being paid about $NZ3.77 an hour by the Polish national airline LOT, while their New Zealand counterparts were earning between $NZ15 and $NZ18 an hour. Outside Parliament, Mr Maharey said: “I find it disgusting that our national airline could have anything to do with such a scheme. It is blatant exploitation of cheap foreign labour”. Air New Zealand’s public affairs manager, David Beatson, said the Poles were working only on their own airline’s Boeing 767 under the supervision of his company’s staff. Mr Beatson confirmed that Air New Zealand was crediting the Polish airline for their work at the same pay rates as local engineers. He said that what the Polish airline management paid its workers was not the business of Air New Zealand. Mr Beatson said Immigration Service officials had visited Air New Zealand’s Auckland engineering base and satisfied themselves that the Poles were being trained.

Another Air Force Base To Be Sold

Warren Cooper, the Minister for Defence, has announced that the air force will leave its Shelly Bay base near Wellington. Nineteen civilian jobs will be lost when the air force moves to the Trentham army camp early next year. A member of Parliament, Annette King, says the base should be kept in public hands and not sold off for elitist private purposes. The Wigram, Christchurch, air force base is being wound down, prior to the military leaving it by December, 1996. More than 3700 pilots were trained at Wigram the first late in WWI.

Good Airways Corp Profit

An after tax profit of $NZ6m, some $NZ1.6m above target – has been achieved by the Airways Corporation of New Zealand. Airways Corp customers are happy, too. The total value of discounts returned to customers between October 1993 and June, 1996, will be about $NZ8.5m, says the chairman: Rex Loach. He says that the discount on en route Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) was to give the Corporation’s customers the benefits of cost savings as well as the benefits of growth in aircraft movements. Mr Loach adds: “Our forecasts indicate that revenue growth from more movements, combined with further cost savings, will enable us to introduce a new discount of 10% on en route IFR charges to mid 1996”.

The Airways Corporation has also introduced Economic Value Added (EVA) principles as a further initiative to evaluate the Corporation’s performance. The Corporation has various contracts throughout the South Pacific, Asia and Bermuda. “We are providing commercialisation consulting, project management for air traffic control, aviation English, air traffic control courses and technical maintenance contracts.” Internationally, the Corporation has been recognised by receiving the Flight International Award for ‘Achievement in Infrastructure’. This award was given for implementing modernisation programmes on time and under budget while the Corporation operated profitably with reduced charges for en route services.

Other significant achievements in the year to last June include the completion of a $NZ21m navigation systems modernisation project. We are in the vanguard of the introduction of satellite based technology, which will deliver significant savings to customers. “We have also upgraded services at Queenstown, introducing aerodrome control services and approach control,” said Mr Loach. The Corporation’s annual report shows that revenue was $NZ89m, of which $NZ83m came from Airways charges. Corporation staff handled 1,205,532 aircraft movements in 1993, against 1,070,322 the previous year. In 1993 there were 16,673 international scheduled movements at Auckland airport, 3008 at Christchurch and 1538 at Wellington. Auckland’s domestic scheduled movements numbered 73,073, Christchurch 52,977 and 76,584 for Wellington. The chief executive of the Airways Corporation, Pete Proulx, says in the report that Airways has started the development of a New Zealand Airspace Plan covering the next 15 years.