NZ in the money + fleet news

Profit News
Air New Zealand have reported a strong half year interim profit with normalised earnings to 31-December-2012 up 300% on the previous year.

Earnings pre-tax were $139M NZD up from $33M NZD in the previous year, with normalised after tax profit of $100M NZD up $62M on the previous year.

Air New Zealand's media release lists the following

Key points:

• Normalised earnings¹ before taxation of $139 million, up more than 300 percent

• Statutory net profit after taxation of $100 million, up $62 million

• Operating revenue of $2.4 billion, up 3.4 percent

• Operating cash flow more than doubles to $343 million

• Gearing improves by 4.3 percentage points to 41.8 percent

• Fully imputed interim dividend of 3.0 cps, a 50 percent increase

Air New Zealand have credited the strong program of change they have been implementing in the past year or two as the reason for the strong profit result.  This includes the Seats to Suit fare structure on trans-Tasman and Pacific Island routes, as well as the alliance with Virgin Australia on trans-Tasman and domestic Australian and New Zealand routes.  Air New Zealand's cargo business has also grown and seen a 9% boost to revenue during the period. Air New Zealand have also seamlessly changed CEO's at the end of 2012

“We have a new leadership team with deep industry experience fused with fresh perspectives from world class leaders who have joined us from other sectors. The focus and energy within Air New Zealand is quite remarkable.  We are stepping it up in all areas of the business to drive improved operational and financial performance while further enhancing our award-winning customer experience,” Mr Luxon says.

Fleet News
Air New Zealand are confidant of the future and one thing this allows Air New Zealand to do is to grow, with the company announcing it will introduce two new leased Boeing 777-319ER aircraft to the fleet before the end of 2014.  These aircraft will be for expansion with the Boeing 787-9 still expected to begin entering the fleet from 2014.

Although when looking at the aircraft capital commitments slide from the Air New Zealand 2013 Interim Result Analyst Presentation you can see the B773ER deliveries will occur one before 30-June-2014 and one after 1-July-2014, while it appears the B789 deliveries wont happen until after 1-July-2014, despite Boeing confirming EIS is currently on track to happen in mid 2014.  You will also notice the A320 deliveries ramp up with 4 delivered in FY14 & 3 in FY15, while the AT76 deliveries continue to plod along at 1 per year

Air New Zealand 2013 Interim Result Analyst Presentation © Air New Zealand 2013

You can read the full press release from Air New Zealand HERE or read any of the documents that Air New Zealand supplied to the New Zealand Stock Exchange (including the above mentioned presentation) HERE

Air NZ: The bear essentials of safety

Air New Zealand have released the next installment of their popular in flight safety videos this time featuring international adventurer and survivalist Bear Grylls.  The video also features some familiar Air New Zealand crew faces as well as New Zealand Entomologist Ruud Kleinpaste who is well known in NZ for his television appearances.

The video blends the usual fun of Air New Zealand safety videos, with the "reality" adventure of Bear Grylls to get its message across.  It builds on the magical New Zealand scenery that was featured heavily in the previous Hobbit safety video, and is a big selling point for the country and airline.  Although at times I find Bear's to camera pieces a little unsettling as he seems a little out of place not filming reality and playing up to the camera.

In true Air New Zealand nature they have embraced the social media opportunities this video brings, prominently using the #airnzbear hash tag.

Have a look at the video below and let me know what you think of the latest iteration of the Air New Zealand in flight safety video series.

A few BNE movements from 23.02.13

Following on from my last post, aircraft pics are back baby!

My friend Tim was out at BNE on Saturday 23-February-2013 and captured some of the departures from runway 01.

You can find Tim on twitter @timstewartnz

Cathay Pacific Airbus A330-342 B-LAH operating CX146 BNE-CNS-HKG

Qantas Boeing 767-338ER VH-OGH operating QF525 BNE-SYD

 Qantas Boeing 747-438ER VH-OEJ operating QF15 BNE-LAX

Air New Zealand Boeing 777-319ER  ZK-OKN operating NZ136 BNE-AKL

 Etihad Airbus A330-243 A6-EYH operating EY473 BNE-SIN-AUH

EK435 overhead pics

Its been far to long since we've seen aircraft photos on this blog so recently I've captured a couple of Emirates Boeing 773ERs operating EK435

EK435 AKL-BNE-DXB often overheads my house when in bound to BNE from AKL in the pattern for runway 01

First up was Emirates Boeing 777-36NER A6-EBY which was captured on Wednesday 12-February-2013 

A6-EBY Boeing 777-36NER 12.02.13 

And secondly tonight Saturday 23-February-2013 saw Emirates Boeing 777-31HER A6-ECI

A6-ECI Boeing 777-31HER 23.02.13

Commerce Commission chide Wellington Airport

The New Zealand Commerce Commission have found what Air New Zealand have long complained about, that Wellington International Airport Limited is charging too much in landing fees at WLG/NZWN.

The report, released today has found the current pricing regime meant there was nothing stopping the airport from making "excessive profits".
"We have found that the information disclosure regime is effectively promoting innovation, quality and pricing efficiency by the airport," Commerce Commission deputy chairwoman Sue Begg said.

Sue Begg also goes on to say the commission believed 7.1%-8% was an acceptable return however WIAL is expecting a return of 12.3% to 15.2% over the next 5 years.

WIAL, owned by Wellington City Council and investment company Infratil, is currently challenging the commissions report and methodologies in the High Court.

On a complete side note it is interesting to see that despite the fact both news organisations got correct pictures of WIAL, they are both of one off events and not common everyday shots of the airport.  The NZ Herald depicts an RNZAF B757 sitting outside 'the rock' terminal, possibly at its offical opening in 2010, while the stuff.co.nz article depicts a Qantas A333 sitting at the terminal.

Read more from stuff.co.nz HERE or from nzherald.co.nz HERE

TAIC report into Q300 emergency landing released

©2011 Blair Ensor Marlborough Express/Fairfax Media

The Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) have released their report into the Emergency landing made by Air Nelson Q300 ZK-NEQ at Woodbourne/Blenheim after diverting from Wellington in February 2011.

TAIC found there was nothing mechanically wrong with the plane.
"The nose landing gear did not extend because the pilots did not pull hard enough on the handle that should have released the uplock," it said.
"If the uplock had released, the nose landing gear would have lowered under gravity and locked down."   

The article reports that while training in the simulator for gear failure it took a much lighter pull than it did in reality to release the landing gear.  Air Nelson have since modified their simulators to match the actual force required, while the TAIC have recommended the director of NZ CAA talk to his counterpart at Transport Canada to discuss the possibility of making  training simulator performance there match real life situations.

Sadly for avgeeks in NZ and also for the pilots involved in this incident, despite this report clearing them personally of wrong doing due to the inadequate training received the headline and first paragraph of this stuff.co.nz article insinuates that this incident was their error.

Read the full stuff.co.nz article HERE