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A Bandeirante in the colours of the newly launched Ansett New Zealand Regional at Palmerston North. (Peter Clark)
New Zealand News
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Qantas Says No NZ Domestic Plans
Qantas has told the New Zealand Commerce Commission’s hearing into Air New Zealand’s planned acquisition of a 50% stake in Ansett Australia that it is unlikely to enter the NZ domestic airline market. Qantas says that the start-up costs of a New Zealand domestic operation would be too high and would not justify the likely small rate of return. The airline cited Ansett’s losses with its establishment of Ansett New Zealand, saying the costs involved would far outweigh the benefits of having a NZ domestic feed. However Qantas’ Group General Manager Strategic Development Steve Davies did not entirely rule out a NZ domestic operation. According to a NZ newspaper he stated: “The only circumstance in which I could envisage Qantas becoming directly involved in the New Zealand domestic market would be in the event of either Ansett New Zealand or Air New Zealand National being divested by their current owners.”
737 For Freedom
Freedom Air International is replacing its 757-200 with a smaller 737-300 for its operations during its winter schedule. The 757-200 was due to return to its owner Britannia in late April who needs the aircraft for its peak northern summer timetable. The 737-300 was previously in service with El Salvador’s national carrier TACA International Airlines. TACA’s operations are based out of New Orleans in the USA and the aircraft is registered in the USA. The 737 was due to arrive in New Zealand to commence services from April 27. Freedom has also announced its winter timetable, which focuses on operations to Queensland. The timetable features nine weekly services from the NZ centres of Hamilton, Palmerston North and Dunedin to Brisbane and Sydney. Freedom is planning other ad hoc charters to Queensland and is hoping to fly to Coolangatta, something that has previously been hindered by Customs problems (as Coolangatta is a domestic airport). Meanwhile a survey of 4000 Freedom passengers revealed 80% of passengers would fly across the Tasman more often now that lower fares and more flights are on offer. Further, 89% said they would travel with Freedom again, only 1% said they would not. Most (55%) were visiting friends and relatives, 39% were travelling primarily on business.
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DC-10 For Kiwi
Kiwi has announced plans to operate a 380 seat DC-10 widebody airliner on services from Christchurch to Australia, Singapore and via Cairns to Osaka in Japan. The DC-10 is the centre of Kiwi’s expansion plans which will also see the discount carrier fly to Melbourne and Perth for the first time as well from mid year. Apart from Singapore and Japan the DC-10 could also be used for seasonal charters to the UK. At the time of writing Kiwi was also studying a replacement for its Air 2000 leased 757-200, which has to return to the UK for Air 2000’s summer schedules in May.
Ansett New Zealand Regional Launched
Ansett New Zealand regional airline affiliate Tranzair has been renamed Ansett New Zealand Regional. Ansett New Zealand Regional’s fleet comprises four Embraer Bandeirantes operated by Wellington based Rex Aviation and one Piper Chieftain (owned by Whangarei based Northern Commuter Airlines but flown by Tranzair). Ansett New Zealand Regional/Tranzair’s latest Bandeirante, ZK-REZ, was delivered to New Zealand on February 18. The former Air Rarotonga commuter entered service on February 29. 80 Australian Aviation May 1996
New Domestic Airline Revealed
Former Christchurch based DC-3 operator Pionair board member Philip Maguire has unveiled plans for a new New Zealand domestic airline, Value Airline, which could be flying in November. Value Airline’s Captain Philip Maguire (an ex Ansett pilot) said the start-up is negotiating to either lease or purchase outright two hushkitted Boeing 737-200s which it would use for services between Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The 737s would be configured in an all economy 120 seat configuration and the airline would offer fares considerably lower than the lowest offered by Ansett and Air New Zealand.
PAC Turnaround
The delivery of the first new Cresco ag aircraft in two years (to Fieldair) has marked a dramatic turnaround in operations for PAC (Pacific Aerospace Corporation) since Aeromotive purchased a 75.1% share of the company from ASTA. PAC now holds orders for seven more Crescos and plans to build one Cresco every two months. Following Aeromotive’s buy in and subsequent reorganisation and focus on core activities, staff numbers were cut from 84 to 51 but up to nine new employees will be needed for Cresco production.
Briefs
Air New Zealand may be close to announcing an order for replacement aircraft for its 737-200 fleet. Options include the new generation 737 models and the Airbus A320 family. Several reports have suggested that the Airbus is favoured, which would also be well suited to trans Tasman operations.
Ansett New Zealand’s Chief Executive Rick Ellis has moved across to Ansett Australia to become that airline’s General Manager Sales and Marketing.
Air New Zealand has fitted its domestic 737s with two Flightphones each, allowing passengers to make national and international calls inflight from their seats. Calls are charged either to a credit card, a home telephone number or a business number.
A Hamilton shopping mall will be used to stage a telethon (dubbed helethon) on June 22 to raise money for the Waikato based rescue helicopter service.
Christchurch International Airport posted a $NZ6.2m after tax profit for the six months ending December 31 1995 on revenue of$NZ21.03m (up 6.7%).
Kiwi Travel International Airlines’ founder Ewan Wilson has been awarded the title Waikato Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
Air New Zealand has signed a codeshare agreement with German carrier LTU covering Air New Zealand’s thrice weekly flights between Frankfurt and Los Angeles. Charter operator LTU currently flies to San Francisco from Dusseldorf in its own right and is looking for a second North American port.
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