New Zealand News

Once the initial flights are inaugurated Freedom intends looking at further charters, both trans-Tasman and into the South Pacific, as well as theme and special events charters. Freedom’s 757 arrived in New Zealand on December 4, barely two weeks after Kiwi International’s leased 757 arrived in country. Freedom Air’s new Hamilton/Sydney and Hamilton/Brisbane services pitches it into direct competition with innovative Kiwi International. Kiwi pioneered these new routes and has experienced unprecedented demand with load factors regularly reaching into the 90s.

Speaking on Freedom Air’s start up, Kiwi’s Australian General Manager Steve Core told Australian Aviation, “We must be doing something right for Air New Zealand to mount this challenge. It is a predatory move, which could well see Kiwi enter the Auckland to Sydney market. We welcome this opportunity to compete, especially with our lower cost base.”

The Freedom Air’s blue, yellow and red colours are designed to reflect the sun, sea and surf of some of the key South Pacific and Australian ports it will serve.

Ansett Goes Trans Tasman

Ansett Australia was due to begin flying the Tasman from December 18 with twice weekly flights between Sydney and Auckland. The services result from a new arrangement with Argentina’s Aerolineas Argentinas and will be operated by Ansett’s 747-300s. Aerolineas will purchase blocks of seats on the 747s as an extension of its Buenos Aires/Auckland services. Ansett will sell the remainder of each flight’s capacity in its own right, for the first time providing a link, albeit small, between its Australian and New Zealand domestic operations. Aerolineas previously chartered Qantas aircraft for its link between Auckland and Sydney.

Kiwi’s 757 Arrives

Kiwi Travel International Airlines placed its leased 757 into service across the Tasman on November 24. The 233 seat single class 757 is leased from UK charter operator Air 2000, with whom Kiwi has signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement covering the lease of other Air 2000 aircraft, including A320s. The new aircraft allows Kiwi to cope with growing demand, particularly over the summer period.

The 757 is also being used for a series of six charters to the Cook Islands between December 8 and January 26. Fares for the charters are $NZ699 return, compared with Air New Zealand’s standard rate of $NZ1099. Further, Kiwi is looking at flying to the Cooks on a regular basis from mid-1996.

From February 2 Kiwi will commence twice weekly Dunedin/Sydney flights, while the carrier is also investigating direct services between Invercargill and Australia.

Air 2000 has brought four pilots, three ground engineers and four cabin crew to New Zealand to support the Kiwi operation, reports Peter Clark. The cabin crew will train all Kiwi’s flight attendants on the 757 to UK CAA standards. The pilots are led by Captain Peter Hill, an Air 2000 Senior Training Captain.

Meanwhile Kiwi has won the first round of a legal battle against HCL Aviation, the owners of AvAtlantic, who in turn owns Kiwi’s 727. On November 24 Kiwi succeeded in having an injunction forbidding the 727 to be flown out of New Zealand until Kiwi’s $NZ2.2m damages claim against HCL Aviation is heard. Kiwi has filed for damages from AvAtlantic for breach of contract after the 727 was damaged in a landing incident at Sydney in mid-October. The despatch of a wrong part to repair the aircraft extended the time the 727 spent on the ground to 10 days.

The 727’s last flight for Kiwi was on November 23.

Royal Tongan Leases 748

Royal Tongan Airlines has leased HS.748 ZK-MCA from Mount Cook Airline for a period of two to three years, reports Peter Clark. The ‘new’ HS.748 will carry the Tongan registration A3-MCA and replaces a Twin Otter and the HS.748 which Royal Tongan shared with Air Marshall Islands. ZK-MCA is the first of Mount Cook’s 748s to find a new home. The remainder of the HS.748 fleet will be surplus by the end of February with the delivery of Mount Cook’s final ATR 72.

Transair Trans Tasman

Start-up airline Pacific Transair plans to begin trans-Tasman services using a 737-200 during the course of this issue. Pacific Transair will operate the trans-Tasman flights for New Zealand Transair, a division of Auckland based travel company Pleasure Tours. Transair will initially operate a Friday night Sydney/Auckland flight and a Saturday Auckland/Brisbane/Auckland/Sydney service.

During the week the 737 will fly Australian domestic services between Sydney and Melbourne. A second 737 will be added to the fleet in the first quarter for flights between Sydney and Brisbane.

Robinson R22 Grounding

The NZ CAA grounded New Zealand’s fleet of 77 Robinson R22 helicopters for a mandatory inspection after it was discovered that an R22 which crashed into the Bay of Plenty in October was fitted with bogus parts.

The R22 crashed following an in-flight separation of a tail rotor blade. Subsequent investigation discovered that the R22 had been fitted with a blade salvaged from an R22 which crashed in California in 1993. The blade had had an unauthorised repair carried out on it. Faulty bonding when the blade was repaired caused the failure.

Robinson issued a safety notice to all New Zealand and Australian R22 operators, warning that “unidentified parties” had shipped bogus blades to the two countries and that all R22 maintenance records should be reviewed to ensure that the helicopters have only been fitted with approved parts. All New Zealand R22s had to be inspected for bogus parts before being permitted to fly once more. Most R22s were flying within a week of the grounding order.

Ansett Nz to Hamilton

Ansett New Zealand is planning to start services between Hamilton and Wellington from April. Ansett will operate daily Dash 8 services between the two centres, offering onward connections to South Island centres.

Briefs

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Auckland in mid-November brought a variety of unusual unscheduled visitors to Auckland, including a Kenya Airways A310, a Cameroon Airlines 747-200, a Nigerian 727, a South African Air Force Falcon 900, a Canadian Forces A310, a British Airways 767-300ER, a Namibian Falcon 900, a Botswanan Gulfstream IV, a Malaysia Airlines 747-400, an Air Zimbabwe Boeing 707, a Pakistan Air Force 707 and a RAAF Falcon 900. The Sultan of Brunei brought an A340 and two Gulfstream IVs.

Air New Zealand has appointed New Delhi based InterGlobe Air Transport its representative in India to give it a marketing presence in that country.

The Boeing 777 demonstrator (prototype 01) was due to arrive in Auckland on December 11 as part of a sales tour that also included Australia.

Air Nelson, an Air New Zealand Link carrier, has appointed Alan Brodie as its sales manager.