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

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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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

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

Pacific disruptions due to TC Pam

TC Pam seen covering New Caledonia and Vanuatu

There are disruptions to flights across the South Pacific today with tropical cyclone Pam effecting flights into New Caledonia and Vanuatu.

Air New Zealand has postponed flight NZ782 AKL-NOU for over 32hrs, the flight was scheduled to depart Auckland this morning Saturday 14-March-2015 at 10.05NZDT but will now depart tomorrow Sunday 15-March-2015 at 18:15NZDT.
It is not yet know if flight NZ788 AKL-VLI scheduled for 09:40NZDT tomorrow will be delayed or cancelled as the cyclone tracks south.

Virgin Australia have postponed flight VA171 BNE-VLI from 10:30AEST today to 10:40AEST tomorrow.

Qantas have postponed flight QF87 BNE-NOU from 10:00AEST today until 09:30AEST tomorrow, meanwhile QF91 SYD-NOU has been cancelled.

Air Vanuatu have cancelled both their flights today NF50/51 VLI-AKL-VLI and NF10/11 VLI-SYD-VLI

Meanwhile Aircalin have launched both their flights today with A320 F-OJSB departing NOU for MEL as SB110 and A330 F-OHSD departing NOU for NRT as SB800, it appears that both return flights will operate delayed.  SB111 MEL-NOU delayed from 14:20AEDT to 08:00AEDT while SB801 NRT-NOU will delay from 12:15JST to 19:15JST

VA(NZ) the (visible) end

The final New Zealand registered Virgin Australia aircraft ZK-PBL finished up last night Friday 13-March-2015 as VA161 AKL-BNE, bringing a visible end to VA(NZ).  

VA(NZ) will no doubt still have paperwork to complete and staff to transition across to VAI before it hands in its AOC but the visible face the 10 ZK registered aircraft have returned to Australia.

ZK-PBL will return to her previous Aussie registration VH-VUQ

VH-VUP ex ZK-PBK re-entered service today Saturday 14-March-2015 as VA607 BNE-MKY, while newly Virgin Samoa branded VH-YID operated this morning Saturday 14-March-2015 as VA152 BNE-AKL

Pacific Blue/Virgin Australia (NZ) commenced flying in 2004 between its home base of Christchurch and Brisbane a flight that continues daily to this date.  In 2007 it announced it would enter the New Zealand domestic market and indeed flew between Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin from November-2007 to October-2010.

With the withdrawal of ZK-PBL the New Zealand register connection ends after 11 years of aircraft on the New Zealand register. 23/01/04 - 14/03/15

And the winner is.......

And the winner is ZK-PBL the final VA(NZ) bird

Boeing 737-8FE ZK-PBK flew her final flights as VA171/170 BNE-VLI-BNE on Monday 09-March-2015 before entering the Virgin Australia hanger.  She was struck from the New Zealand register today Tuesday 10-March-2015 and will enter the Australian register as VH-VUP.

VH-VOR ex PBF at time of writing has not entered service but will no longer carry the Virgin Samoa titles.  ***UPDATE*** VH-VOR operated her first flight as VA1384 BNE-ADL today Tuesday 10-March-2015

VH-YID flew from Brisbane to Townsville on Tuesday 03-March-2015 as VA9939 where she entered the paint hanger and was given the Virgin Samoa titles and Tupu'itea name.  Unlike PBF she does not sport the tribal colour band on the engines.  She returned to Brisbane as VA9938 on Sunday 08-March-2015 and at time of writing has not flown since.

VH-VOR/ZK-PBF arriving at AKL in the old Polynesian Blue colour scheme ©nzompilot

Another first for Virgin Australia goes to VH-VUB ex ZK-PBJ which takes the honour of the first ex ZK bird to return to New Zealand.  VH-VUB operated VA160 BNE-AKL on Monday 09-March-2015

Then There Were two

Thursday 05-March-2015 saw Virgin Samoa branded Boeing 737-8FE ZK-PBF operate her final flight on the New Zealand register flying VA161 AKL-BNE.  Upon completion she was towed across the airport and entered the Virgin Australia hanger for business class upgrade and entry to the Australian register.  She will take up VH-VOR.

Meanwhile VH-VUH ex ZK-PBI re-entered Virgin Australia service on Tuesday 3-March-2015 as VA773 Brisbane to Cairns

VH-VUD ex ZK-PBG re-entered Virgin Australia service today Friday 06-March-2015 as VA304 Brisbane to Melbourne

Into The Final Countdown

VA(NZ) has entered the final countdown with just 3 frames remaining on the New Zealand register.

ZK-PBG operated its final service as VA161 AKL-BNE Sunday 01-March-2015 before entering the Brisbane hanger for her business class upgrade and entry to the Australian register as VH-VUD. She was struck from the New Zealand register today Monday 02-March-2015.

ZK-PBG arriving into a stormy AKL in 2007 ©nzompilot

At time of writing VH-VUH ex ZK-PBI had not yet re-entered Virgin Australia service.

Meanwhile despite having flown Business Class equipped aircraft on various Tasman routes for most of the past month, Virgin Australia officially launched Business Class across the Tasman with VA144 SYD-AKL on Saturday 28-February-2015.  From this date all SYD-AKL flights will offer business class.  The 3 remaining ZK registered aircraft will continue to operate but will not operate on SYD-AKL.  Currently PBL is operating out of BNE, PBF on AKL-MEL and AKL-PI services and PBK is on SYD-NAN and SYD-CHC routes.

Read more about the Business Class offering on Tasman services via
austbt.com.au HERE
Australian Aviation HERE

Rough start for potential new NZ domestic player

Startup regional player Kiwi Regional Airlines has announced its proposed route network, but has already suffered a knock back at the hands of the New Zealand Government.

KRA CEO Ewan Wilson is well know in the New Zealand aviation industry having been behind the failed Kiwi International Airlines that operated LCC services Trans-Tasman and fell victim to amongst other things predatory behaviour Air New Zealand's Freedom Air.

KRA's launch network was set to be;
AKL-HLZ-NSN-ZQN-DUD
WPE-WLG
WPE-PMR-BHE
NSN-PMR-TRG

However the New Zealand Government has confirmed it will not be revising a decision that prevents civilian flights from Whenuapai due to noise concerns.  This will prevent KRA from launching its WPE-WLG and WPE-PMR routes.

KRA's route network has been carefully chosen so the airline is not in compassion with Air New Zealand Link.

The company will be based in Hamilton, and will purchase two Saab 340 34-seater aircraft from Europe for the flights. Snacks and refreshments will be offered, and the service will include a flight attendant.

The airline is looking to add a third SF340 to the fleet once operations have commenced.  These cannot commence yet as KRA has yet to receive regulatory approval from the CAA, according to their press release, they hope to commence flights in late 2015 or early 2016.  As can be seen in the above graphic they are aiming to commence the application process on 01-May-2015.

Check out the airlines website HERE
the stuff.co.nz article HERE
the nzherald.co.nz article HERE
and the KRA press release HERE

Air New Zealand release HY15 Interim Results

Air New Zealand have today announced their Interim Financial Results for the HY to December-2014.

Air New Zealand had a mixed result with its normalised profit up 20% to $216m, however its after tax profit slipped 6% to $133m.

Air New Zealand expect the full year profit to grow with fuel prices and hedge pricing in the second half year much lower due to weaker global oil prices.

The announcement also looks forward to the launch of AKL-EZE, new fleet arrivals, and the continues alliance with Singapore Airlines.

The airlines share price is currently up on the back of todays announcement.

Read more via stuff.co.nz HERE, The New Zealand Herald HERE or view the financial announcements and presentations via the New Zealand Stock Exchange HERE

Then there were 4

The Virgin Australia(NZ) fleet has dwindled to just 4 frames with the latest entering the Brisbane hanger for reintroduction to the Australian register and business class upgrade.

ZK-PBI operated its final flights as VA120/121 BNE-DUD-BNE on Sunday 22-February-2015 with its scheduled flight on Monday 23-February-2015 VA171/170 BNE-VLI-BNE cancelled. It was removed from the New Zealand register today Tuesday 24-February-2015.

Meanwhile its predecessor in the hanger VH-VOY (ZK-PBD) made its first flight this morning Tuesday 24-February-2015 as VA1384 BNE-ADL.

The CASA register has been updated and shows that 4 of the 5 ex NZ aircraft (excluding PBI) have been registered to Virgin Australia International with just VH-VUO (PBM) being registered to Virgin Australia (Domestic)  This gives the opportunity for these frames to once again fly the Tasman and Pacific Island routes with the New Zealand based crews.

However to this point only VH-VOO (PBA) and VH-VUB (PBJ) have flown international and both have operated on the Denpasar Bali routes.  Besides the remaining VA(NZ) aircraft the Tasman/Pacific Island routes have all been flown by the newer VH-YI* series aircraft.

Sad & Beautiful

THE SAD

Air New Zealand has lost one of its first female captains to a suspected brain aneurism shortly after she landed NZ175 a Boeing 787-9 in Perth.

Captain Ann Barbarich a 27 year veteran with the airline, was well respected in the Air New Zealand and New Zealand Aviation communities.

She was part of a four man flight crew on board the flight, and made a textbook landing before becoming unwell.  She was initially treated by doctors on board before being rushed to Perth hospital.

The thoughts of this blog are with her family and colleagues after this terrible event.

Read about Captain Barbarich via The New Zealand Herald HERE or stuff.co.nz HERE

THE BEAUTIFUL

The New Zealand Herald have also run an article this week on the interior refits of the Air New Zealand Boeing 777-219 fleet.  The article and video mentions and shows the second of the aircraft to undergo the upgrade ZK-OKE.

Business Premier refit of ZK-OKE - photo © New Zealand Herald

Read the story and watch the video HERE

"First" Flights On Recently Changed Routes

As reported earlier on this blog and elsewhere there have been some changes to international schedules into and out of Australasia, and these schedules have now begun.

Virgin Australia ended its MEL-LAX flights on Sunday and up gauged its BNE-LAX services to daily.  
While the new service began on Sunday the first of the additional arrivals occurred this morning when Boeing 777-3ZGER VH-VPD arrived into Brisbane as VOZ8

With the new codesharing agreement between Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand taking effect on the Singapore - Auckland route, today saw the first Airbus A380 flight on the SQ285/286 service, operated by A380-841 9V-SKB.  

Singapore will continue to operate its Boeing 777-200s on SQ282/281 evening service until January when this is replaced by an Air New Zealand Boeing 777-219 service, under the code NZ281/282.  

The A380 service will operate over the southern summer, and is expected to return to a Boeing 777-300 service at the end of March 2015.

Today also saw Untied's first International Boeing 787-9 route with the direct LAX-MEL UA98 route touching down on Australian soil.  Boeing 787-9 N38950 inaugurated the now direct service and is set to return direct to LAX as UA99 at time of writing.  This route previously operated with a Boeing 777-200 and a stop in SYD.

Farewell #AirNZ747

With Air New Zealand's retirement of the Boeing 747 I have decided to test out a video blog.

Let me know what you think.

NZ/SQ alliance approved

Finally 4 months after the Singapore authorities approved the alliance, the New Zealand Government has given its approval to the new alliance between Star Alliance partners Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines for flights on the AKL-SIN route.

The alliance will see Singapore Airlines hand over its evening flight (SQ281/282) 08:45-22:45AKL/ 23:50-06:40+1SIN which is currently 5x weekly, to NZ who will operate it as a daily 772ER service.  SQ will hold onto their morning flight (SQ285/286) 21:10-10:50+1AKL 12:10-19:00SIN which operates with a 773ER.  This will be up gauged seasonally to operate with SQ's A380.

With the addition of the A380 to the SIN-AKL route, AKL will host 4x A380 on the ground each day with EK already operating 3x A380 to AKL.

Charles Spillane, Auckland Airport's acting general manager aeronautical commercial, says the new alliance will bring substantial capacity growth and improved connectivity.
"This alliance between Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines demonstrates the commitment that both airlines have to growing connections between Singapore and New Zealand and we congratulate them on this," said Spillane.

Read more on the reaction to the alliance's approval via The New Zealand Herald HERE 

A few images from the [recent] archives

I've been looking through my archives in the last few days and have done some editing to come up with the following 3 images.


First we head way back into 2007 where a miserable cold winters day makes for a moody backdrop to Emirates A340-500 A6-ERA in Christchurch.

Next we fast forward to 2008 where the summer sun shimmers on Eva Air A332 B-16305 as she arrives into Christchurch on a charter flight.

Finally we move to 2009 with the gorgeous YJ-AV1 of Air Vanuatu as she departs Auckland on return to her Port Villa home.

QF 'give up' share on tasman with route cuts

In another sign that QF is struggling, the airline has announced they will cut up to 15 Trans-Tasman flights to Auckland per week.

From October 26th Qantas will cut their MEL-AKL and SYD-AKL services by one flight a day while cutting BNE-AKL to just 5 flights per week down from double daily.

In July 2013 Qantas pledged to maintain "existing capacity on trans-Tasman routes that both Qantas and Emirates fly" as a condition of approval for its partnership with Emirates, and the airline says it will continue to comply with that requirement.

Most if not all of these flights are operated by Jetconnect the New Zealand based subsidiary airline that has a lower cost base than Qantas itself.

Jetstar will step in adding a new 6x weekly MEL-AKL and weekly SYD-AKL services but will drop their 3x weekly ADL-AKL service.

Virgin Australia and Air New Zealand are expected to benefit as their alliance picks up any additional passengers and or flights required on these routes, as VA earlier this year reported that Trans-Tasman was in good shape.

Read more about Qantas' cuts from Australian Business Traveller editor David Flynn HERE

Is user pays the new hope for regional NZ?

Masterton residents were up in arms when Air New Zealand dropped their daily MRO-AKL flight in February, now hope is thriving again with possibilities for "user pays" flights.

The first possible white knight to the community was Sounds Air with their plan to operate a Cessna Caravan on MRO-WLG as a morning commuter flight but this idea has since been shelved.

Next saw Vincent Aviation offer the community their MRO-AKL service back with a Saab SF340 service, however the community would have to buy or lease the Saab which Vincent would then operate.  However it looks like this plan will also be shelved after the turbulence of the Vincent Aviation Australia collapse.

The third white knight is Air Chathams a long established operator who usually fly to and from the Chatham Islands.  They have the experience here as well as having operated Chathams Pacific in Tonga, which ceased operation last year when the Tongan government set up a rival airline with Chinese donated aircraft.

Air Chathams are revisiting their original proposal and if the community accepts the terms, stumping up $100,000 to form a 50/50 LLC company, then Air Chathams could be flying from MRO in as little as two weeks from the formation.

However it appears there will need to be structural work completed at the airport, extending the runway by 70 meters at a cost of $150,000, to allow the Air Chathams Metroliner aircraft to take off with an 18 passenger load.

Whatever the local council and community decide it looks like the future of any service to Masterton relies on significant investment from the users.  Should this work out well then this offers an opportunity for other regional centres who have lost services to work with an iterated party using the "user pays" model to restart their service.

Read more about the Air Chathams proposal via the Dominion Post HERE