Wine flight charters

While its Sounds Air who have the scheduled wine flights (BHE-NPE) it has been Air New Zealand who has been making all the noise with two BHE-GIS charter flights for delegates at recent wine conferences.

Following the International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration in Marlborough, more than 60 top international wine writers, sommeliers and buyers were flown to Gisborne to attend the inaugural Chardonnay and Sparkling Symposium.

Air New Zealand operated two Air Nelson Q300 aircraft on these flights which operated on Thursday 04-February-2016;

ZK-NEQ operated NZ8902 which departed BHE at 13:59 and after its leisurely flight across New Zealand's wine growing regions landed in GIS at 15:43

ZK-NFA operated NZ8904 which departed BHE at 14:16 and followed the same path landing in GIS at 16:14

Radar track of the leisurely flight path of NZ8902 ZK-NEQ BHE-GIS

Read the story and see video from the flight via the Marlborough Express HERE

OOL & CNS take a win

Gold Coast (OOL) & Cairns (CNS) airports have had a win with Hong Kong Airlines announcing that they will continue their service to the Queensland airports year round.

The news comes just one month into the three month temporary Chinese New Year charter flights HX are operating from January to March.

Hong Kong Airways a subsidiary of Hainan Airlines currently operates these services 3x weekly from Hong Kong to the glitter strip, then back to HKG via CNS, using an Airbus A330. 

The new permanent service will operate twice weekly on the circular HKG-OOL-CNS-HKG route, and will now be open to local travellers.  Honk Kong Airlines is limited to secondary ports like OOL & CNS, due to the bilateral between Australia and Hong Kong, which restricts the number of flights into major airports, that each country is allowed and national carrier Cathay Pacific utilises all the HK rights.

Read the Gold Coast Airport media release HERE or the story via the Gold Coast Bulletin HERE or Australian Aviation HERE

Jetstar's 'propstar' service up to full strength

Today saw Jetstar start its full compliment of regional New Zealand routes, with the launch the three remaining services.

Jetstar now has 6 regional ports on its services, Auckland through which all but one of the services fly, Napier, Nelson, New Plymouth, Palmerston North and Wellington.

AKL-NSN services debuted on 01-December-2016 as did AKL-NPE while today 01-February-2016 saw the launch of the remaining services AKL-NPL*, AKL-PMR* & WLG-NSN.
* Full AKL-NPE & AKL-PMR services will start in March, JQ is running reduced services in February

VH-TQD in New Plymouth - photo via stuff.co.nz (Charlotte Curd/Fairfax Media)

The regional JQ fleet in NZ sits at 5 with QantasLink subsidiary Eastern Australia Airlines operating the following Q300s VH-TQD, VH-TQK, VH-TQL, VH-TQM & VH-SBI on behalf of JQ.

Here is a run down of the fleet arrivals into NZ and their first flights

VH-TQD positioned BNE-NLK-AKL 15-January-2016 and entered service as JQ355 AKL-NPE on 19-January-2016

VH-TQK positioned BNE-NLK-AKL 25-January-2016 and entered service as JQ375 AKL-NSN on 26-January -2016 and flew the inaugural JQ365 AKL-PMR today 01-February-2016

VH-TQL positioned BNE-NLK-AKL 23-November-2015 and entered service as JQ355 AKL-NPE on 01-December-2015

VH-TQM positioned BNE-NLK-AKL 06-November-2015 and entered service as JQ371 on 02-December-2015 and flew the inaugural JQ391 NSN-WLG today 01-February-2016 

VH-SBI positioned BNE-NLK-AKL 21-November-2015 and entered service as JQ350 NPE-AKL on 01-December-2015 and flew the inaugural JQ361 AKL-NPL today 01-February-2016

With the launch of todays services JQ will fly 129 weekly services 27 each on the AKL routes with 21 on NSN-WLG

Read the story from the first New Plymouth arrival via stuff HERE or the Jetstar press release HERE

DPS looms large in Tigers eyes

As mentioned last year Tigerair will take over the MEL/ADL/PER - DPS services currently operated by parent Virgin Australia from next month.

Tiger recently held a media event to discuss the flights and show off the first of their Boeing 737-8FE's which they will borrow from VA for use on the route.

Boeing 737-8FE VH-VUB in Tigerair livery at YMML - photo via australianaviation.com.au ©

The first Boeing 737-8FE in service will be VH-VUB ex ZK-PBJ which was painted into Tigerair livery last year and has sat in MEL since awaiting Tigerair service.

The second Boeing in Tigerair livery will be VH-VOR ex ZK-PBF which completed its last VA revenue service yesterday Sunday 31-January-2016 when it arrived into Brisbane as VA1496 from Hamilton Island, it then positioned to Townsville as VA9901 where it entered the Flying Colours hangar for the repaint.

The third and final Boeing to enter Tigerair service is expected to be VH-VOO ex ZK-PBA (an aircraft I experienced twice in the last week)

For more details on the new service and to see photos of the new Tigerair can refit read the Australian Aviation article HERE

Trouble in Paradise

There is serious trouble for Vanuatu and Bauerfield International Airport Port Vila.

Yesterday Air New Zealand announced it was suspending its once weekly AKL-VLI service and cancelling its codeshare on Air Vanuatu flights due to the deteriorating condition of the airport runway. Further video from 3news.co.nz HERE

Today Qantas have announced they too are cancelling their codeshares on Air Vanuatu flights from VLI to BNE & SYD.

Virgin Australia have announced they are sending safety experts to Vanuatu this weekend to assess the situation and it is expected they too will suspend their BNE-VLI flights.

This leaves Fiji Airways and Aircalin & Flysolomons (Solomon Airlines) as the remaining international operators as well as local airline Air Vanuatu, but for how long?.

Air Vanuatu itself is experiencing issues, in November they farewelled their B738 YJ-AV1 after its lease ended, its replacement is due at the end of January with uplift in the interim covered by the dry lease of Transavia Airways B738 PH-HSA. However PH-HSA hasn't flown since 21 January 2016 with B738 services having been cancelled and B733s VH-YNU & VH-PNI of Nauru Airlines covering some services.

Asian carriers enter the Tasman battle

Singapore Airlines and Air Asia X set to join the locals, the LCC's, Emirates and some Chinese carriers in trans-taxman services.

For Malaysian LCC Air Asia X the announcement of the addition of an OOL-AKL-OOL tag to their existing KUL-OOL service, is a re-entry to the Tasman.  Previously they operated an OOL-CHC-OOL tag, however like many flights, this suffered and was ended as a result of low passenger numbers after the Christchurch earthquakes.

The new tag flight will operate daily with D70206 departing OOL at 08:40AEST (09:05) arriving in AKL at 16:00 NZDT (15:30NZST) and returning at 17:00 NZDT (17:30 NZST) arriving back into OOL at 17:25AEST (18:00) --> bracketed times are from the end of Daylight Saving in New Zealand OOL is in QLD which doesn't observe daylight savings.

Check out the announcement via Australian Aviation HERE

Singapore Airlines is set to launch a brand new service from SIN to WLG via CBR.  The new service will operate with the airlines A330 aircraft and will be their first service into the two capital cities. 

The new service will be 4x weekly with an announcement expected this week.

Check out the details (to date) on this service via the AFR HERE


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Air New Zealand's new safety video

Its that time again, the time when Air New Zealand feels the need to release a new version of the inflight safety video.

The latest video features the All Blacks, some of their familiar former foes, kiwi muso Stan Walker and a couple of familiar faces from the movie franchise Men in Black.

I've got to be honest its not my favourite safety video that Air New Zealand have come up with.

Changes to VA shorthaul Asian flying

As expected by a lot of people Virgin Australia has today announced it will withdraw from the Perth - Phuket route and hand its Perth/Melbourne/Adelaide - Bali routes to subsidiary Tigerair.

Tigerair will take over the Bali flights from March, with the Phuket route being dropped from February.

Regulatory approval is still begin sought for Tigerair to operate a fleet of 3 all economy Boeing 737-800s on the Bali flights.  Tigerair has until now been an all A320 operator.

Virgin will redirect its capacity from these routes to an increase on Sydney/Melbourne - Christchurch as well as seasonal capacity increases on flights to Fiji and the Solomon Islands.  Virgin reduced its capacity into Christchurch as a result of the effect on passenger numbers from the Christchurch earthquakes.

These changes come on the back of the annual profit announcement from Virgin which was a bottom line net loss of $94M AUD.  It is expected that these changes along with a $1b cost saving program will return the airline to profitability in the near future.

Read more about the changes to these services via the Brisbane Times HERE

Comings and goings #2

Here is a quick look at some of the notable comings and goings for airlines in the Australia/New Zealand region between the last update in March and now.

Air New Zealand have reduced their Boeing 737 fleet to just two frames, with two more leaving the fleet.
ZK-NGG Boeing 737-33A deregistered 17-June-2015 and noted recently in CHC wearing N303KH
ZK-NGR Boeing 737-33A deregistered 01-May-2015
ZK-EAK Beech 1900D deregistered 17-June-2015
During the period they gained the following A320
ZK-OXI Airbus A320 registered 13-April-2015

To enable Sounds Air's expansion and its replacement of Air new Zealand on some services Sounds Air have taken delivery of the following aircraft
ZK-PLS Pilatus PC12/45 registered 16-March-2015 ex VH-KWO
ZK-PLZ Pilatus PC12/45 registered 28-May-2015 ex VH-JMU
ZK-PLT Pilatus PC12/45 not yet registered still registered as VH-MWO arrived in NZ on 04-June-2015

The departure of the former Vincent Aviation fleet continues
ZK-VAI J31 deregistered 28-May-2015 to A3-SKY with Real Tonga Airlines delivered 04-June-2015
ZK-ECO BAe 146-200 deregistered 20-April-2015 to VH-SUF with Skyforce (Pionair Australia)registered 24-April-2015
VH-VNU Saab SF340B deregistered 7-April-2015 Exported to Guam with Skydive Guam

Cobham (National Jet Express) have taken delivery of another aircraft
VH-NJU Avro RJ85 registered 10-June-2015

Jetstar continued to receive Boeing 787-8s
VH-VKJ Boeing 787-8 registered 30-April-2015
VH-VKK Boeing 787-8 registered 19-May-2015

There have been several changes to the Qantas fleets
VH-NHY EMB120R deregistered 02-March-2015 exported to South Africa
VH-OGI Boeing 767-300 deregistered 06-May-2015 exported to USA
VH-OGL Boeing 767-300 deregistered 07-Aptil-2015 exported to USA
VH-OGO Boeing 767-300 deregistered 19-June-2015 exported to USA
VH-OGT Boeing 767-300 deregistered 16-June-2015 exported to USA
VH-TJI Boeing 737-476 deregistered 27-May-2015 exported to USA
VH-TJK Boeing 737-476 deregistered 30-April-2015 exported to USA
VH-OJA Boeing 747-400 deregistered 31-March-2015 to HAARS Aviation Museum Wooloongong

The next wave of Virgin Australia deliveries have been registered but are yet to be delivered, interestingly they have returned to the YF* rego block after receiving deliveries in the YI* block, suggesting these will be domestic aircraft. 
VH-YFS Boeing 737-8FE registered 12-May-2015 not yet delivered
VH-YFT Boeing 737-8FE registered 12-May-2015 not yet delivered
VH-YFU Boeing 737-8FE registered 12-May-2015 not yet delivered
VH-YFV Boeing 737-8FE registered 12-May-2015 not yet delivered

KRA announce initial routes

New start up Kiwi Regional airlines has announced its first routes with a launch focus on Dunedin.

From Sunday 27-September-2015 KRA hopes to use its single Saab SF340A on the following daily rotation DUD-ZQN-DUD-NSN-HLZ-NSN-DUD-ZQN-DUD

KRA has always wanted to operate routes without direct competition from the national carrier, and with this route structure they have succeeded in that.

Dunedin - Queenstown is a route that has only been offered by small regional operators in the past with 9 seat aircraft so the introduction of a 32 seat aircraft on double daily flights is a big jump.

Dunedin - Nelson is a brand new route linking together two of the South Islands larger centres, a route that has never had a direct service.

Nelson - Hamilton is a route that has previously been operated by both Origin Pacific and Air New Zealand.

Despite being Dunedin centric in this initial schedule, the airline will base its crews in Hamilton.

Read more about the KRA plans via stuff.co.nz HERE

JQ to the regions in NZ

Jetstar look set to enter deeper into their head to head battle with Air New Zealand in New Zealand, announcing they will base a 5 strong fleet of Dash 8 Q300 aircraft in New Zealand to fly regional routes.

In a period where Air New Zealand has downsized its regional flying and is reducing its regional fleet types, Sounds Air and Air Chathams are filling in the gaps left by Air New Zealand and new player Kiwi Regional Airlines has announced its intentions, this decision from Jetstar is certainly interesting.

The five Q300s will come from Qantas Link subsidiary Eastern Australian Airlines who will operate the aircraft for Jetstar.  Jetstar is still evaluating which routes it will fly the Q300s on from December and is seeking public feedback on proposed routes including Hamilton, Rotorua, New Plymouth, Napier, Palmerston North, Nelson and Invercargill.

Jetstar made the announcement this morning in Auckland with Qantas CEO Alan Joyce in attendance as well as New Zealand Prime Minister John Key.

Read more on the Jetstar announcement via one of these sources
stuff.co.nz HERE
nzherald.co.nz HERE
ausbt.com.au HERE

A return to the past... AA to SYD & QF to SFO

One world alliance partners Qantas and American Airlines have announced a 'return to the past' with their recent joint launch.

American Airlines will return to the LAX-SYD route after a 23 year absence while Qantas will return to the SYD-SFO route after a 4 year absence.

American will operate daily on the pacific route with its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.

Qantas will initially launch SFO on peak days moving to 6x weekly in January 2016.  They will utilise Boeing 747-400 aircraft freed up from the reduction of MEL/SYD-LAX flying which they will give over to AA.

Read more about the joint route announcements via
Australian Aviation - HERE
Australian Business Traveller - HERE, HERE & HERE

QF Link boosts WLE

Qantas link have responded to demand and passenger feedback with additional flights and some retimings on the Sydney - Wellcamp service.

4 new flights will be added a Wellcamp - Sydney service on Friday evening, Sydney - Wellcamp on Saturday morning and a return Sydney - Wellcamp - Sydney service on Sundays.

As a result of the new Friday/Saturday services there are changes to the SYD-WLE Friday afternoon departure and the WLE-SYD Saturday morning departure.  The first moves forward an hour to 16:55 from 17:55 and the latter moves back an hour from 07:30 to 08:35.

The route is operated by Qantas Link Q400 aircraft and commenced with the opening of the airport on 14-November-2014

Read more via Australia Aviation HERE or the Wellcamp press release HERE

JQ heads to China

Jetstar today have announced they will launch Gold Coast - Wuhan flights from Tuesday 29-September-2015 utilising their Boeing 787-8 aircraft.

This is the first direct Australia - China route for Jetstar, who previously offered one stop flights via Singapore.

The flights will operate twice weekly on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Jetstar have teamed up with Chinese tour operator Dalian Wanda Group to sell the flights which gives Jetstar an almost certain guarantee that the flights will be profitable.

Read more on the new service via Australian Business Traveller HERE, Australian Aviation HERE or Airline Hub Buzz HERE

LAN commence 787 service

LAN have today commenced their dedicated 787 service to Auckland and Sydney.

LA801 operated by Boeing 787-8 CC-BBA departed Santiago 39 minutes late at 00:44CLST Friday 17-April-2015 bound for Auckland and onto Sydney.

The final A330 service on the route was operated by A330 CC-CQF as LA800 and departed Sydney at 10:17AEST Friday 17-April-2015 bound for Auckland and onto Santiago.

Later this year LAN will again upgrade the LA801/800 service moving from the Boeing 787-8 to the Boeing 787-9

CC-BBA the first LAN 787-8 on LA801 departing Santiago for Auckland and Sydney

Qantas set for return on PER-SIN

Qantas will return to the PER-SIN route, this time with a 737-800 service.

Flights will resume on Friday 26-June-2015 which will be just over a year since they axed their former PER-SIN A330 service.

QF71 will depart PER at 12:00AWST arriving into SIN at 17:20SGT then QF72 departs SIN at 18:25SGT landing back in PER at 23:40AWST

Flights will operate 5x Weekly We,Fr, Sa-Mo

NZs latest A320 arrives

The newest domestic configured Airbus A320 for Air New Zealand ZK-OXI arrived into Christchurch from Cairns as NZ6097 on delivery in the early hours of Wednesday 15-April-2015.

ZK-OXI as all NZ domestic configured A320s does not have HF radios fitted and as usual flew across the Tasman in convoy with a scheduled flight, tonight it followed NZ804 BNE-CHC operated by ZK-OJG

ZK-OXI arriving into CHC on delivery

The delivery flight began in Toulouse on Saturday 11-April-2015 and routed TLS-MCT, On Sunday 12-April-2015 it routed MCT-KUL, on Monday 13-April-2015 it flew the penultimate leg KUL-CNS before flying its CNS-CHC leg today Tuesday 14-April-2015

JQs baggage woes

Jetstar's New Zealand operations have taken another publicity hit after issues with the baggage loading system in Wellington on Wednesday 08-April-2015.

Passengers on VH-VQA JQ290 CHC-WLG were the worst effected with their baggage remaining on the aircraft as it returned to Christchurch as JQ291 incidentally only delayed by 30 minutes.  The baggage was then unloaded at Christchurch and was finally delivered to passengers today Thursday 09-April-2015.  Passengers are quoted as saying no one at Jetstar knew what was going on, from staff at the airport to staff in the call centre.

Passengers arriving in from the Gold Coast on JQ167 experienced delays of 2 hours getting their luggage with some having theirs delivered by courier five hours after landing.  Flight Radar 24 shows A320 VH-VGI operating the return JQ168 WLG-OOL service was delayed by two hours as a result.

VH-VGP operating JQ292 WLG-AKL was also delayed as result with the flight departing at 12:46NZST two and three quarters hours after its 09:05NZST scheduled departure time.  This resulted in JQ299 AKL-ZQN and JQ296 ZQN-AKL also operating 3 hours behind schedule.

VH-VGU also experienced delays across the day stemming from Wellington beginning with JQ274 WLG-AKL delayed 90 minutes, this lead to delays on JQ247 AKL-CHC, JQ250 CHC-AKL, JQ285 AKL-DUD, JQ284 DUD-AKL, JQ269 AKL-WLG, JQ268 WLG-AKL

VH-VFI also experienced delays yesterday of 2 hours on JQ255/254/257/256 AKL-CHC-AKL-CHC-AKL these cannot be directly attributed to the baggage loading system in WLG although they may relate to crew being on one of the delayed flights from WLG.

Read more on the baggage handling delay at WLG via stuff.co.nz HERE including the passenger complaints.
**note the stuff.co.nz article incorrectly uses a photo of a Jetstar 787-8 with this article

JQs week of 1sts

Jetstar launched a raft of inaugural flights this week.

On Sunday 29-March-2015 Cairns welcomed Jetstar's newest international route CNS-DPS-CNS with A320 VH-VFQ operating the inaugural JQ90/91 service.

Gold Coast also saw a new service on Sunday 29-March-2015 with JQ982/983 OOL-PER-OOL departing.  The inaugural service was operated by A320 VH-VFD

On Monday 30-March-2015 the new JQ164/165 MEL-WLG-MEL service departed Melbourne at the delightful red-eye hour of 00:45 with A320 VH-VQR the lucky aircraft.

On Tuesday 31-March-2015 the new JQ125/124 OOL-NAN-OOL service departed Gold Coast with A320 VH-VFJ operating the inaugural return service.

Changes to Virgin Flights

With the reabsorption of Virgin Australia (NZ) into the Virgin Australia International arm there have been a number of schedule and flight number changes to the Virgin Australia International network, which came into effect this week, with the winter timetable.

Numerous Trans-Tasman, Pacific Island and Bali flights have seen either flight number or time changes or both, here are two changes of note.

Port Hedland - Denpasar Bali

This once weekly service used to operate PHE-DPS-PHE as VA2611/2613 utilising a Virgin Australia Regional Fokker F100, as of today Saturday 4-April-2015 it is now a DPS-PHE-DPS service using a Virgin Australia International B738 as VA74/73.

Sydney - Nadi Fiji

During Peak times Virgin Australia will up gauge their Saturday SYD-NAN-SYD service to an A330.  These peak times are mainly school holidays and selected dates over the Christmas/New Year holiday period.  The first up gauged service departed Sydney this morning Saturday 4-April-2015 operated by Airbus A330 VH-XFJ