More Jetstar route announcements

Jetstar have now also announced the introduction of a daily Auckland - Melbourne flight and a 3x weekly Auckland - Cairns flight.  In addition they have announced the increase in Auckland - Wellington frequencies to 24x weekly.

A daily Auckland-Melbourne service commences on 13 December 2010 and a new three times weekly Auckland-Cairns service commences from 12 April 2011.

These announcements come on top of the routes to Queenstown, mentioned in the previous post, and the longhaul launch from a previous post.

The full report can be read HERE from our friends @NZAviation

With the introduction of the Cairns service, this bring the number of airlines on this route to 3, after Air New Zealand dominated this route for a long time, and before that the route was all but forgotten by airlines.   This should come as good news for the North Queensland Tourism industry.

Jetstar launch trans-tasman services to Queenstown

Jetstar have announced they will introduce new services from Melbourne and the Gold Coast to Queenstown, and increase their current daily AKL-ZQN flight to 11x weekly.

Jetstar said a twice weekly Melbourne to Queenstown A320 service would begin on December 16 and a twice weekly Gold Coast to Queenstown service on December 17.
Jetstar is also increasing services between Queenstown and Auckland from daily to 11 times a week from December 16.
It will have seven A320 aircraft based in New Zealand by December.

Full SMH article HERE

AIAL news

Some interesting moves of note from Auckland International Airport.  These have impact on the trans-tasman and domestic aviation markets.

They have invested in Queenstown Airport

Auckland International Airport said on July 8 that it is investing in a 24.99 percent shareholding in Queenstown Airport by subscribing for new shares for $27.7 million.
It has an option to increase the holding to 30 percent to 35 percent at any time up to June 30, 2011.

And have also suspended the construction of their second runway

Auckland International Airport has suspended construction on its second runway following consultation with the airline industry, saying it will make more effective use of peak-time capacity on the existing runway.

Queenstown Airport investment article HERE and local reaction HERE
2nd runway suspension article HERE

Air New Zealand to buy shares in Virgin Blue?

Air New Zealand have refuted claims they plan to buy shares in Virgin Blue, rumoured to be up to 15%.

Air New Zealand says it has not bought any shares in airline Virgin Blue but a statement to the NZX, made in response to media reports, has not ruled out such a move.

Full article from stuff.co.nz HERE
and article from Sydney Morning Herald HERE

Air New Zealand set RNP record at Rotorua

Air New Zealand set a world first for Airbus when they operated A320 ZK-OJM into ROT on Saturday 22-May-2010 using RNP level 0.1 with the surrounding cloud base at just 400ft.

The RNP 0.1 value is the lowest level approved by Airbus and authority to operate below RNP 0.3 had just been granted to ANZ the previous day.

Air New Zealand have used RNP technology for their flights into Queenstown for several years now, and are also trialing the use of RNP for services into several other airports including Brisbane and Coolangatta, in Australia.

See the full report at ATW HERE

(Posted in conjunction with Rotorua Aviation Scene)