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Kiwi Takes Flight
Kiwi Travel International Airlines began scheduled services between New Zealand and Australia on August 23 using its leased 727-200. Kiwi received formal approval for its services the afternoon before scheduled operations began, making the airline New Zealand’s second designated international carrier. The airline also began domestic services with a Piper Chieftain from New Plymouth to Hamilton, providing feed for its international flights. Currently Kiwi flies six scheduled services across the Tasman each week comprising three return flights between Hamilton and Brisbane, two weekly flights between Hamilton and Sydney, and one weekly service between Dunedin and Brisbane — all cities pairs previously not served by direct flights. Speaking shortly after the flights had commenced, Kiwi Travel International’s Chief Executive Ewan Wilson said that he was “absolutely thrilled” with passenger loadings, and future bookings looked encouraging. The 727-200 is leased from Av Atlantic in the USA, and is configured with 173 economy class seats. Kiwi had planned to lease National Jet’s 737-300, although for a variety of reasons elected to lease the larger 727. Further details on Kiwi Travel International appear in this month’s Airline Affairs column.
Air New Zealand Upgrades Services
Air New Zealand has announced a $NZ50m upgrade of its international aircraft cabins, plus improvements to services on domestic flights. Over the next two years the seating pitch on Air New Zealand’s 747s and 767s will be increased in all classes with overall seating capacity reduced. The cabins will also be refurbished with new interiors, and all first and business class seats will gain personal video screens. Meanwhile Air New Zealand introduced revamped menus on its domestic 737 services in August. The airline consulted with chefs from five of New Zealand’s leading restaurants to design the new menu. Air New Zealand is also looking at bringing forward the delivery date of the six new Boeing 737s it has on order from the current planned date of 1998. The exact 737 subtype has not yet been specified, and the airline is also looking at buying smaller jet airliners. Some of the current 737s could be retained for trans Tasman and South Pacific flights after the new jets are delivered.
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Convair For Air Chatham
Air Chatham plans to replace its current Metro III with a Convair 580 from late this year to cope with increased passenger demand. The 580 is currently being modified by Convair modification and maintenance specialists Kelowna Flightcraft in Canada to feature a freight door, allowing combined passenger and cargo carriage. The Convair’s combi configuration will be able to carry either 44 passengers with no freight, or up to four tonnes of freight with 20 passengers. The Convair will be used predominantly for services between the Chatham Islands and the South Island, although it will be made available for passenger and freight charters at night when it is not being used on scheduled operations. The aircraft is due in New Zealand in early December, and should enter service by Christmas.
Rnzaf Exercises With Indonesia
A contingent of 11 aircraft and 100 personnel participated in a two week long exercise with Indonesia from late August in the lead up to the annual Five Power Defence Arrangement exercise in Malaysia. Eight 75 Squadron A-4 Skyhawks, two C-130 Hercules and a P-3 Orion participated in the bilateral exercise Elang Sebrang based out of Medan in northern Sumatra, although because of political sensitivities the RNZAF could not divulge the specific nature of the exercise. The aircraft were then due to participate in a number of defence exercises in Singapore and Malaysia under the auspices of Exercise Vanguard, New Zealand’s participation in the annual Five Power Defence Arrangement exercises. Earlier two RNZAF exercises were held in Fiji during July — Tropic Astra 95 and Tunex 95. Over 1000 RNZAF personnel, two Andovers and three Iroquois deployed to the main island of Viti Levu for three weeks. Tropic Astra is an annual training camp designed to train and test air and ground crews abilities to work in a tropical environment. The Tunex exercise meanwhile tested RNZAF long range communications capabilities.
Air Services Growth
A number of airlines have added or plan to add additional air services to and from New Zealand. British Airways and Qantas added a fourth weekly Auckland/LA nonstop flight in August, following strong bookings. Meanwhile Air New Zealand has gained approval to operate a fifth weekly flight to London. The extra flight should be in place by Christmas, although the exact start up date had yet to be determined at the time of writing due to slot availability at Heathrow. Also in Europe Air New Zealand has added a third weekly direct flight to Frankfurt, replacing a previous flight which flew via London. Air New Zealand has also applied for Ministry of Transport permission to begin weekly flights to Santiago, Chile from late October in conjunction with LAN Chile. Passengers flying to Chile would fly with Air New Zealand from Auckland to Tahiti before transferring to a LAN Chile flight to Santiago. The return Santiago/Tahiti LAN Chile sector would require a refuelling stop at Easter Island. Fukuoka looks set to become the fourth Japanese city serviced by Air New Zealand following Ministry of Transport approval to fly the new route from October. The twice weekly 767-300 will initially be codeshared with JAL. Air New Zealand currently serves Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. Korean Air planned to route three of its five weekly services to New Zealand via Fiji from mid September, subject to government approvals. This announcement follows hot on the heels of Air New Zealand’s approval to fly to Seoul via Fiji. Finally Eva Air planned to introduce a third weekly Taipei/Auckland 767-300 service from late September.
Briefs
Eagle Air has taken delivery of two additional Bandeirantes for use on services previously operated by Air Nelson Navajos. This brings the Eagle Air Bandeirante fleet to nine.
RNZAF Base Shelly Bay formally closed on June 30.
A clarification of the August issue article “No NZ Defence Purchases of French Equipment.” At the time of writing the official NZ Government stance on future defence acquisitions is that it will review any future purchases of French military hardware. Consequently the Eurocopter Panther remains one of the four shortlisted contenders for Anzac and Leander frigate helicopter, along with the Westland Lynx, Kaman Seasprite and Sikorsky S-76. However to operate from the Leanders, three of the four contenders will require modifications to the ships, the aircraft, or both.
Hamilton airport is studying a runway extension which would allow aircraft up to 767 size to operate into the airport.
Ron Carter, John Aburn and Hugh Jones have been reappointed to the New Zealand CAA board.
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