Airline Profile — Kiwi Travel Int’l Airlines

These four flights were very successful and it was decided to expand in this area as unlike Ansett, Qantas and Air New Zealand, Kiwi strongly believed that there existed a large untapped trans Tasman market awaiting whoever would be far sighted enough to offer services to what had traditionally been deemed secondary markets. Consequently, in late September it was decided to undertake further flights to Brisbane that December and at the same time decided to cease being a retail travel outlet. Five Sunday departures were undertaken to Brisbane with two to Tonga and two to Western Samoa.

Kiwi Travel Air Charters was established when a group of friends came together to operate the original charter flights in early 1994. The CEO is Ewan Wilson who owns 60% while Patrick Pruett is the other working director. The other two non working directors are Michael Tournier, a commercial pilot with ATC at Ardmore Airport and Mike Park of Auckland who is also a CPL. It is interesting to note all four are just 29 years of age and yet they have done far more than many of their senior newstart aspirants of recent years. Ewan gained his PPL in Te Anau in 1987 after learning to fly on a Cessna 152. But his initial connection with aviation was in 1983 when he flew for three years as a cabin crew member with the RNZAF. After this Ewan went overseas and joined the retail travel trade and gained his British PPL before moving to Canada where he earned his commercial licence. Not surprisingly he does not find the time to fly at the moment.

Ewan decided in January 1995 that demand existed for a series of semi permanent weekly charter flights to Brisbane. As an ICAO convention states you can only operate 28 charter flights on the same route each year, other points Australian Aviation November 1995 in Queensland were incorporated. These flights were planned and running by on April 9, to include Coolangatta, Cairns, Townsville, Rockhampton and Brisbane. This schedule saw flights operating every Sunday out of Hamilton to Queensland until the arrival of the new aircraft. The charter flights ended with the last Air Nauru aircraft being used on August 27 to return passengers from Rockhampton and Brisbane.

Consequently in May this year Kiwi’s founders looked at becoming the second New Zealand international airline, with the motto ‘Bringing the Waikato to the World’. Not surprisingly, this has now been changed to ‘Bringing New Zealand to the World’.

Kiwi originally planned to lease Adelaide based National Jet Systems’ Boeing 737-300QC, but this particular 737 does not meet ETOPS requirements and it suffers some internal restrictions to the passenger cabin as it is primarily a freight aircraft. Thus Kiwi was forced to find another aircraft. This time a Boeing 727-225A, registered N805EA, was leased from AvAtlantic, in Savannah, Georgia with a tech crew of nine to ensure three fully operational crews. AvAtlantic operates four Boeing 727-200 and two -100 aircraft. N805EA, serial number 22436 had its first flight on November 3 1980 and was delivered to Eastern Airlines nine days later. N805EA joined Carnival Airlines On May 1 1991 having been repossessed from Eastern Airlines following its demise earlier that year. From Carnival Airlines it joined the AvAtlantic fleet. N805EA has been modified with FedEx hushkits to meet ICAO Stage III noise requirements and is powered by three Pratt & Whitney JT8D-15 turbofans each delivering 14,500lb (65kN) thrust. On the flightdeck there is both Omega and GPS nav systems.

AvAtlantic’s Assistant Chief Pilot Terry Phillips came to New Zealand to preside over the operation and told AA that he is here to make the operation work. He said all captains have an average of 12,000 hours and the first officers have 4000 to 6000 hours. All the pilots have major airline experience. Kiwi Travel International Airlines was issued its International Air Services Licence from the NZ Ministry of Transport on August 9 and received an official go-ahead when the New Zealand CAA gave AvAtlantic its NZ Air Operators Certificate. This certificate is valid for six months, after which AvAtlantic’s operations will be reassessed. The Air Service Licence gives economic and political authority for the Tasman flights.

As AvAtlantic is a charter company, Kiwi had to obtain last minute approval from the US FAA to allow AvAtlantic to operate as a scheduled airline. At the same time Kiwi took a CAA official to the US to help with the issuing of AvAtlantic’s NZ Air Operators Certificate. The CAA has said this process normally takes a good two to three months, while Kiwi Travel International required the AOC in under a month. At the eleventh hour the CAA issued the certificate at 2.30pm on August 22, the day before the scheduled operation was to get underway, with the aircraft arriving direct into Hamilton at 3.30pm. At the same time contingency plans were being made to honour passenger bookings if the aircraft and approvals did not arrive on time.

Kiwi Shuttle has been established to act as a feeder service to the international operations, connecting from New Plymouth and Gisborne to Hamilton, initially with a Piper Chieftain. A second aircraft is planned allowing flights from Auckland/Whangarei and Palmerston North. Kiwi Shuttle resulted from the recent merger of the interests of Hamilton based VIP Air Charters and Ewan Wilson and Kiwi Travel International Airlines.

To operate the new schedules from August 23 Kiwi has 16 FAA approved cabin crew trained by AvAtlantic. From Hamilton the ground handling is carried out by Hamilton Aero Maintenance who has certificated ground engineers and will carry out all ground side work. An additional part of the operation is a weekly service from Dunedin to Brisbane. The ground handling at Dunedin is handled by Flightline and a new small terminal has been purpose built. Across the Tasman, ground handling is being carried out by Qantas in Brisbane and an independent company in Sydney (although Qantas was used initially).

At Hamilton Kiwi saw the need for an enlarged flight catering company providing further benefits for local people with five locals being recruited for the aviation security role. For the charter flights, staff originally came down from Auckland based Aviation Security Service, now this task will be handled locally.

The new schedule sees the aircraft in Brisbane for its weekly service by Qantas on a Tuesday. The next day it flies Brisbane/Hamilton/Sydney/Hamilton. Thursday sees Hamilton/Brisbane return. Friday has no flights scheduled at this time, but will be available for charters and already several have been arranged. At this stage the 727 has to make a tech stop in Auckland for most flights out of Hamilton in order to carry its 173 passengers off the short 1706m runway, but operates direct into Hamilton. The same goes for Dunedin with a tech stop in Christchurch of around 30 minutes to take on fuel.

Hamilton’s Airport Manager, Barry O’Conner, said the airport company is now looking at a new extended runway of 2250m and appropriate taxiways. This is at least a $NZ7m project, including the purchase of the land. Investigations are underway at this time and a report is due by the end of the year. Also the airport is to look at expansion projects now that events are taking a more certain turn. Barry O’Conner said up until now they had been operating on a budget of only $1.2m and it was hard to plan ahead with this. A $NZ25 departure fee has been imposed and expansion can be planned with more certainty now that the airline has scheduled services and is recognised as a credible operator. These plans include upgrading the apron, upgrading the fire services, extensions to the terminal and additional car parking. At this time the airport company provides the security, Customs/Immigration, terminal baggage trolleys and has built a temporary arrivals area. Barry O’Connor said, “Kiwi has done everything it said it would, and also pays its bills”. He is disappointed the local travel industry has not actively supported the airline, not like in Dunedin.

Kiwi say it is attracting a different type of traveller who is local and may not have travelled widely. Director Patrick Pruett said “its been a struggle with lots of hurdles, and a lot of pressure from external forces”. To attract these new travellers the airline introduced a new low fare, no frills class — called the ‘Peanut and Coke class’. This is a 50 to 75 seat area in the back of the aircraft called the Peanut Gallery. A full economy service is offered in the rest of the aircraft.

The inaugural flight of Kiwi Travel International finally came when KIC 19 departed Hamilton at midday on August 23 1995. Just before 12:09 the small crowd that had gathered for the departure were waving their goodbyes to the 125 passengers, including 53 in the Peanut Gallery. After a short taxi to RW 36, at 12:16 they were airborne for the 19 minute flight to Auckland. After a brief refuelling stop they were airborne once again, this time with a rather longer takeoff roll and flight KIC 19 was on its way to Sydney. AA was aboard the aircraft for its inaugural service and enjoyed one of the smoothest flights ever experienced during the winter months. The three and a half hour flight allowed the passengers in the front part of the cabin to enjoy the full service being offered by the six cabin crew (led by John Butler). However, upon arriving in Sydney and landing on the mostly closed east-west runway due to severe crosswinds on the two north-south parallel runways, the 727 was allotted a gate with no aerobridge and ironically the peanut fare passengers found themselves the first off the aircraft via the integral rear airstair. Following shutdown it was a 15 minute wait aboard the aircraft while the Customs officer, it seems, successfully located the aircraft and allowed the passengers to deplane the aircraft.

From a New Zealand perspective it was a shame to see no official welcome being offered by the Australians. (Perhaps if Kiwi had an official PR person this would not have been the case and invaluable free publicity would have been generated by such an occasion. It is amazing from our humble perspective how most businesses — not just Kiwi — just don’t understand how valuable and effective a properly functioning public relations machine can be for their business, but that I guess is another story! ~ Ed)

Then there were further testing times, as Qantas in Sydney was enduring a series of industrial problems. Consequently, several of the Kiwi staff decided they would pitch in to unload the aircraft, only to be told they were not members of the union. So after a delay of 45 minutes, after a planned one hour turnaround, the small load of passengers boarded KIC 20 for its direct flight back to Hamilton. Qantas has since rejected accusations that it tried to spoil the inaugural flight as claimed in the media at the time and points out that it itself was having considerable ground handling problems at the time due to the union campaign.

Another airline has now taken flight and has commenced operating out of New Zealand, with many benefits for the tourism travel industry and most of all the passengers who ultimately are the ones that finance the growth. However, many feel the airline is already being unfairly attacked by the New Zealand media. Rumours, for instance, are that Air New Zealand is about to commence operations across the Tasman out of Dunedin.

All we can say is that only time will tell, Ansett New Zealand for example has now been operating for over eight years, is now profitable and is still growing. The future for Kiwi is to consolidate and then look at measured expansion. We wish them well.