Pacific Blue to introduce Premium Economy

Pacific Blue (NZ) welcome back their 10th 737-8FE currently operating as VH-VUQ (ex ZK-PBL) with Pacific Blue (Aust) in March, to facilitate the introduction of the AKL-CNS-AKL route

While operating for Pacific Blue (Aust) VH-VUQ was fitted with Premium Economy as all Virigin Blue aircraft are.  Its return to the NZ fleet will see the introduction of Premium Economy through out the Pacific Blue fleet, and into the Pacific Island, Trans-Tasman, and NZ Domestic Markets.

Jetstar fleet investmet

Jetstar have announced a NZD$4.9bn fleet investment which will benefit the trans-tasman and NZ domestic markets, with a fleet on new Airbus aircraft

Meanwhile, the IAE agreement will see V2500 SelectOne engines power a new fleet of 50 Airbus A320 aircraft to be added to services in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. It also includes options to purchase rights on up to 40 more aircraft.

Quote from the ARTICLE

Pacific Blue to increase AKL-OOL to daily

Pacific Blue are set to increase their AKL-OOL-AKL service to daily according to a REPORT in the Gold Coast Bulletin.

No information about this increase is available on the Pacific Blue website.

New international enterants to trans-tasman CHC market?

Recently Malaysian Airlines and AirAsia X both based in Kuala Lumpur have mentioned the desire to add Christchurch to their networks.

AirAsia X have yet to formally announce anything but the flight will operate between the Gold Coast and Christchurch as an addition to their daily KUL-OOL service.  This has been covered in the Gold Coast Bulletin (I am unable to provide a link) and also mentioned in the Christchurch Press HERE

Malaysian (MH) have announced the desire to add a new NZ route, which is expected to be CHC, it is also expected to operate KUL-XXX-CHC with the mid point being one of the current Australian destinations.

The following quote comes from MH's chief executive officer/managing director Tengku Datuk Azmil Zahruddin

We will introduce new direct service to Brisbane and announce a new destination to New Zealand soon

From this NEWS ITEM

This would bring the number of foreign carriers (non NZ or AU) on the tasman to 6 and the number of international carriers (non NZ) also operating to CHC to 6.

Foreign carriers currently operating on the tasman
Emirates - 4x daily return BNE-AKL, MEL-AKL, SYD-AKL, SYD-CHC
Lan - 6x weekly return AKL-SYD
Aerolineas Argentineas - 5x weekly return AKL-SYD
Royal Brunei - daily 1way service 4x AKL-BNE, 3x BNE-AKL - soon to be dropped to operate direct BWN-AKL-BWN

International carriers currently serving CHC
Qantas
Jetstar 
Emirates
Singapore Airlines

Air New Zealands new long haul cabins

Air New Zealand launched their new long haul cabins on Tuesday 26-January-2010.  A lot has been written in different parts of the internet so this post while showing you the new designs will also link you to these writings.

Air New Zealand press releases:

• New Interiors and Service Provides Luxury Jet Feel 
• Lie-down in economy now a reality with Air New Zealand 
• Premium Economy Booming for Air New Zealand

Pictures of the new economy class "Skycouch":

Air New Zealand's launch video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lql77jkiztc

Blog post from Cranky Flier with a youtube video walk thru tour of the new cabins, conducted by airline group manager Ed Simms:
Exploring Air New Zealand's New Long Haul Cabin with Beds in Coach

Other media articles on the launch:
NZ Herald
Stuff.co.nz
Galding.com
NZCity

Summer Notes for 20 January 2010

The lovely "Summer Weather" caused havoc during late evening Sunday 17-January-2010 and early morning Monday 18-January-2010, with Fog and low cloud closing Wellington airport for much of this period. The effects are listed below.

Qantas/Jetconnect
Boeing 737-476 ZK-JTR operating QF117 SYD-WLG 17/01 diverted to AKL - it positioned from AKL to WLG and then operated delayed services QF118/47/38/134 on 18/01.

Air New Zealand
Airbus A320 ZK-OJA operating NZ144 SYD-WLG 17/01 diverted to AKL. On 18/01 it attempted to position from AKL to WLG as NZ6501. It then departed AKL to WLG after lunch as NZ6731 before operating the scheduled domestic service NZ420 back to AKL.

Airbus A320 ZK-OJC operating NZ166 BNE-WLG 17/01 diverted to AKL. 18/01 saw it attempt to position to WLG as NZ6291. It later departed AKL as NZ6021 to ROT to operate the scheduled NZ973 ROT-SYD. ZK-OJB later positioned from ROT to AKL as NZ6022 after arriving as NZ972 from SYD.

The other Airbus affected by the Wellington weather was ZK-OJD which attempted to operate scheduled domestic flight NZ405 before positioning to WLG as NZ6729 before entering scheduled afternoon trans-tasman services.

Pacific Blue
Pacific Blue Boeing 737-8FE VH-VOQ operating DJ4068 17/01 diverted to AKL. 18/01 saw it position down to Wellington in the early evening before operating the very delayed DJ4069 back to BNE. The scheduled DJ4068 for 18/01 operated as normal with VH-VUQ.

Domestic services were also affected with both DJ3004 AKL-WLG and DJ3165 CHC-WLG returning to their departure points after unsuccessful landing attempts into WLG resulting in the return flights DJ3011 WLG-AKL and DJ3170 WLG-CHC being canceled and the days remaining flights operating with delays.

Jetstar
Jetstar domestic services were effected with all flights operating on a delayed schedule but with no cancellations.

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Qantas/Jetconnect

Saturday 26-December-2009 saw
Boeing 737-476 ZK-JTP operate from WLG to AKL as QF118 (WLG-SYD) before Boeing 737-476 ZK-JTR continued from AKL to SYD as QF118.
Boeing 737-838 ZK-ZQA suffered mechanical issues in SYD being replaced on QF113/134 (SYD-AKL-MEL) by Qantas mainline Boeing 737-838 VH-VXM, while Boeing 737-838 ZK-ZQC positioned from SYD to MEL as QF6007 in preparation to operate the scheduled MEL-AKL QF25 service the next morning.
ZQA then returned to service as the heavily delayed QF141 SYD-AKL on 27-December-2009

New Year's Eve 31-December-2009 saw Boeing 737-476 ZK-JTQ operating QF133 MEL-AKL operate via BNE due to fuel upload requirements for a non-etops flight.

Sunday 3-January-2010 saw Boeing 737-376 ZK-JTQ operating QF48 WLG-SYD divert to CHC after a bird strike. JTQ remained in CHC until it positioned to AKL on Tuesday 05-January-2010
03/01 then saw ZK-JTS positioned to WLG from AKL as QF6172 to cover the flying the next day, with the remaining two flights that day QF48/117 (WLG-SYD-WLG) canceled.

Boeing 737-476 ZK-JTS positioned from AKL to CHC as QF6171 on Saturday 11-January-2010 for scheduled maintenance.

Saturday 16-January-2010 saw Boeing 737-838 ZK-ZQB undergo some maintenance in MEL with QF25/26 being covered by mainline Boeing 737-838 VH-VXD, before ZQB returned to service as QF131.

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Jetstar

Jetstar re-introduced the evening JQ257/258 AKL-CHC-AKL service on Monday 28-December-2009, albeit only operating Mo, Fr, Sa, Su that week. JQ257/258 is now operating 6x weekly (no Wednesday service) The JQ257/258 service had been dropped at the start of December.

There have been 3 flight cancellations for JQ so far in 2010
Monday 04-January-2010 - JQ244/247 morning CHC-AKL-CHC service
Saturday 09-January-2010 JQ247/246 mid morning AKL-CHC-AKL service
Tuesday 19-January-2010 JQ254/255 evening CHC-AKL-CHC service

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Air New Zealand

Sunday 10-January-2010 saw Airbus A320-232 ZK-OJN operating NZ171 AKL-CNS divert to BNE due to a cracked windscreen. OJN positioned back to AKL as NZ6292 on Monday 11-January-2010.

Air New Zealand have been using their A320s to increase loads on certain ZQN domestic flights over the summer period with A320s being noted used at different times on the following route.
AKL-ZQN-AKL operating as both NZ1619/1620 and NZ619/620

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Pacific Blue

Pacific Blue (NZ) operated Pacific Blue (Aust) Boeing 737-8BK VH-VOX on scheduled Domestic and International routes between Monday 04-January-2010 and Monday 18-January-2010 to cover the scheduled maintenance of two of its aircraft. ZK-PBF (04-13 Jan) and ZK-PBM (13-18 Jan)

New Route/ Increased Services

There have been several announcements lately of new routes and increased services:

Air New Zealand
Air New Zealand have announced an increase in their winter schedules into Queenstown (ZQN) for the peak July/August period, taking the number of direct trans-tasman flights to 13 weekly.

The schedules are as follows

Sydney services 6x weekly
NZ232 SYD-ZQN 1000-1500, NZ231 ZQN-SYD 1600-1715; operating Mo, Tu, We, Fr, Sa, Su

Melbourne services 3x weekly
NZ236 MEL-ZQN 0850-1355, NZ237 ZQN-MEL 1455-1620 Tu
NZ236 MEL-ZQN 0900-1405, NZ237 ZQN-MEL 1505-1630 Th
NZ236 MEL-ZQN 0715-1220, NZ237 ZQN-MEL 1320-1445 Sa

Brisbane services 4x weekly
NZ234 BNE-ZQN 0850-1420, NZ233 ZQN-BNE 1520-1705 Mo, We, Su
NZ234 BNE-ZQN 0915-1445, NZ233 ZQN-BNE 1545-1733 Th

At the same time NZ will also increase their direct AKL-ZQN services.
Media release


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Pacific Blue
Pacific Blue have announced the introduction of the AKL-CNS-AKL route. The flight will operate twice weekly on Tuesdays and Saturdays, these flights will operate with ZK registered Boeing 737-8FEs

The timetable will be as follows;

23 March 2010 - 1 April 2010
DJ117 AKL-CNS 1600-1840, DJ118 2200-0530*
1 April 2010 - 21 September 2010
DJ117 AKL-CNS 1600-1940, DJ118 2300-0530*

On 1 April 2010 two flights will operate to cope with the increased Easter demand!
Media Release


Pacific Blue/Polynesian Blue have also added a fourth weekly Auckland-Rarotonga return flight on Thursday's, for the busy holiday period (10 December 2009 and 28 January 2010)
Media Release

ATW Airline of the Year 2010

Congratulations to Air New Zealand on winning the ATW Airline of the Year 2010 award

NZ Herald article