New Zealand News

Kiwi’s Capacity Shortfall

Drastically reduced capacity hampered trans Tasman operator Kiwi International’s operations for much of May following the replacement of the Air 2000 leased 757 with Air Nauru’s 737-400. The airline returned the 757 to lessor Air 2000 earlier than expected due to Air 2000’s heavier than anticipated commitments with northern hemisphere summer period charter traffic. Hence Kiwi was forced to lease Air Nauru’s 737-400 for May, however the 737 has significantly fewer seats than the high density configured 757. Also, the daily Kiwi service leaving from New Zealand was reduced to just four days a week for three weeks in May. During these three weeks Kiwi International’s total passenger capacity was reduced from 4800 down to 1200. Displaced passengers that had been booked on these flights were offered the choice of a new flight date or a complete refund on their tickets. The Air Nauru 737-400 has now been joined by Kiwi’s new Airbus A320 which arrived at Hamilton in late May, while the carrier’s third aircraft, a 737-300 which will operate out of Christchurch, is due to be delivered in late June.

Air National Relaunch

Domestic charter carrier Air National has relaunched with a new livery, logo and corporate image. Air National’s fleet of five aircraft have been repainted in the new colours of white, green, grey, charcoal and silver and with the New Zealand flag incorporated into the livery. The reborn airline is pressing to be the largest charter airline in the country. The airline was relaunched to meet the need for the growing corporate and private transport market. The carrier hopes the market will grow for the airline to upgrade to larger 30 to 40 seat aircraft and to establish itself as the premier domestic charter carrier in New Zealand.

Air New Zealand Update

Air New Zealand has announced its decision to withdraw its second weekly Cairns to Auckland service. This announcement comes after Qantas’ decision to introduce a twice weekly service between the two cities. Air NZ has said that there was not enough capacity for both airlines to be running twice weekly services. In other news the airline is planning services to South America later this year in conjunction with Chilean national carrier Lan Chile. Meanwhile Air NZ has set up a site on the worldwide web with the aim of attracting customers to the airline. This is all part of Air NZ’s new Pacific Wave product revamp. The site can be found at https://www.airnz.com.

Freedom Air To Coolangatta

Freedom Air has gained approval for four charter services between Hamilton and Coolangatta, departing on June 29 and July 6, 13 and 20. For this purpose Freedom Air has leased a Boeing 737-300 from Polynesian Airlines to boost its capacity. The airline is pitching the charters at both New Zealanders and Australians. The Gold Coast is a popular spot with New Zealanders in winter and Freedom hopes that Australians from southern Queensland and northern NSW will take advantage of cheap fares to visit New Zealand’s snow fields. Gold Coast tourism operators fully support the move as they believe that direct international flights are long overdue. Freedom has been trying to gain access to Coolangatta for a number of months but in the past has been hampered by customs and immigration issues (Coolangatta is a domestic airport only).

Briefs

New Zealand’s oldest turbine helicopter, a Fairchild-Hiller FH-1100, is currently undergoing restoration at Christchurch’s Garden City Helicopters. The helo is owned by Gordon McNutt who will operate the aircraft privately. It is the third time the helicopter will have been rebuilt.

The CAA posted a $NZ144,000 loss for the last financial year. There was an income shortfall of $NZ600,000 as the CAA budgeted for revenue totalling $NZ8.8 million however only$NZ8.2 million was raised.

P-40 Kittyhawk ‘Wairarapa Wildcat’ became the stuff of legend when in 1943 its pilot Geoff Fisken made five kills in two weeks at Guadalcanal. Now this P-40 is being restored by John Chambers and is expected to fly near the turn of the century.

The RNZAF recently called for registrations of interest for the contract to fit some of its aircraft with P-code Global Positioning Systems. The aircraft to be fitted are C-130H Hercules and UH-1 Iroquois.