Qantas hit all the 30's

Qantas have hit all the 30's with their announcement today of the A330 interior upgrade program to occur in Brisbane in the new $30 million dollar hangar while recruiting 30 new apprentice engineers. With each aircraft expected to be in the hangar for 30 days.

Qantas today announced its fleet of 30 Airbus A330 aircraft will have new cabin interiors installed at its Brisbane heavy maintenance and engineering facility.Qantas also announced it is recruiting 30 apprentice engineers, with the majority to be based in Brisbane.Qantas Group Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce, who was in Brisbane to officially open the $30 million upgrade to the hangar, said today’s announcements further cements Qantas' commitment to engineering and maintenance in Australia.

 This is good news for Brisbane and means spotters will get to see all 10 A333's and 20 A332's from late 2014 through to 2016

Read the full Qantas release HERE

NZ - The airline of Middle Earth

Air New Zealand continue to embrace their role as 'The airline of Middle Earth' with a new Hobbit video and another one, possibly another safety video due out tomorrow.  All this is in the lead up to the release of the second of the Hobbit movies in December

The latest video "Just another day in Middle Earth" is described by Air New Zealand below, and features cameo appearances from ZK-OKP the Hobbit themed Boeing 777-319ER and ZK-OXB the first Airbus A320 in the new livery as well as the stunning scenery of Queenstown airport.

Here in Middle-earth, everyday tasks can reveal out of this world surprises and before you know it everything can turn a bit Hobbit-shaped.

I am looking forward to see tomorrow's video which by the look of the teaser photo below will be another safety video based on the crew featured in the first video

Photo from Air New Zealand Google+

 and this photo from their facebook page of ZK-OKP in Queenstown

Photo from Air New Zealand Facebook

Airwork launches on market

Auckland based Airwork has launched an IPO with the aim to list on the NZX by December

Aircraft leasing and maintenance company Airwork has launched an initial public share offer to raise up to $40 million and float on the stock exchange.
The Auckland company is offering up to 15.4 million new shares at $2.60 per share and expects to begin trading on the NZX main board by December 19 if the minimum amount of $30m is raised, according to a prospectus issued yesterday.

Airwork operates an engineering arm, a helicopter arm as well as a fleet of aircraft (F27, B733F, B734F, SWM) flying on behalf of New Zealand Post in NZ and Toll Priority in Australia.

Read more on their float from stuff.co.nz's Business Day HERE

Airwork NZ's Fokker F27 ZK-PAX seen at NZWB ©nzompilot

Sounds Air to add WAG?

Picton based Sounds Air look set to replace Air New Zealand on the Wellington to Whanganui route according to a Marlborough Express report.

Sounds Air managing director Andrew Crawford said detailed discussions between the airline and the Whanganui District Council were " a long way through" and an official announcement was pending.
Air New Zealand announced in September that it would drop its five-times weekly service between Whanganui and Wellington from Christmas Eve, citing a lack of demand.
Mr Crawford said Sounds Air would fly at the same times as the current Air New Zealand flights. But it would provide fewer seats than Air New Zealand which uses a 19-seat Beechcraft 1900D.   

This would take the Sounds Air destinations to 5 with Wellington, Picton (Koromiko), Blenheim, Nelson & Masterton* all currently served.

*Masterton was scheduled to start with Sounds Air offering flights to Wellington in place of the scheduled Air New Zealand services

Read the full article from the Marlborough Express HERE

NZ announce first 789 route

Perth is the winner with Air New Zealand announcing its first route with the Boeing 787-9 will be AKL-PER in October next year.

Chief Executive Officer Christopher Luxon made the announcement at the official opening of the airline’s Customer Innovation and Collaboration Centre in Auckland today. A feature of the centre is the only Boeing 787-9 full cabin interior outside the factory in Seattle.

The cabin mock-up has outlined how Air New Zealand will outfit its interior with 302 seats in a 3 class layout.  18 lie flat Business Premier seats, 21 Premium Economy seats and 263 economy seats.  All seats feature a new entertainment system which is slimmer and has a higher resolution than that on the 773.

'We've taken advantage of new inflight entertainment hardware and that's allowed us to introduce new monitors and also allowed us to slim down the back of the seat considerably from those which have had inflight entertainment. (in the past) That allows much more personal space."

Air New Zealand program director Kerry Reeves with in flight service manager Priyanka Girish
Photo / Dean Purcell /nzherald

Read more on the new 789 cabin and the first flights to PER at Air New Zealand's Flying Social Network HERE or the nzherald HERE