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

Rex begins QLD services

As reported last year REX won the contract for several of the Queensland Government Regulated routes, beating out incumbent Skytrans.

The first service by Rex was today 1-January-2015 with the inaugural Western 2 service being operated by Saab SF340B VH-ZRH departing Brisbane shortly after 09:15AEST as ZL5662 to Wellcamp.  

This also marked the first service by Rex to Wellcamp, and the first of the regulated route services to Wellcamp, with Skytrains having previously serviced Toowoomba airport.

Rex Saab SF340B VH-ZRC at BNE in 2013

ZL5662 services the Western 2 route of Brisbane - Mt Isa via Toowoomba (Wellcamp) - Charleville - Quilpie - Windorah - Birdsville - Bedourie - Boulia

Today also saw the first Rex services on Northern 1 Longreach - Winton - Townsville & Gulf flights from Cairns - Mt Isa via Normanton - Mornington Island - Doomadgee

The Rise And Fall Of Airlines Fighting For Regulated Routes In QLD

The Queensland Government has announced the winning tenders to operate the Government subsidised regulated regional routes.

Winners

The big winner in the announcement is Regional Express (Rex) who have picked up three routes to add to their existing two, taking them to five regional Queensland routes.

Rex maintained their existing routes;
Townsville - Winton - Longreach (Northern 1)
Townsville - Hughenden - Richmond - Julia Creek - Mt Isa (Northern 2)

they have also added the following three routes;
Brisbane - Toowoomba - St George - Cunnamulla - Thargomindah (Western 1)
Brisbane - Toowoomba - Charleville - Quilpie - Windorah - Birdsville - Bedourie - Bouila - Mt Isa (Western 2)
Cairns - Normanton - Mornington Island - Burketown - Doomadgee - Mt Isa (Gulf)

All five of the routes will be operated by the Rex fleet of Saab SF340B aircraft, with the two Western routes operating through the new Brisbane West- Wellcamp Airport at Toowoomba.

Rex picked up Northern 1 and 2 in 2011.  The addition of Western 1 & 2 sees Rex return to scheduled services at Brisbane after an absence, however they have still operated FIFO and Freight charters from Brisbane, so have maintained a presence.

Qantaslink hold onto their two regulated routes;
Brisbane - Roma - Charleville (Central 1)
Brisbane - Barcaldine/Blackall - Longreach (Central 2)

These routes will continue to be operated by Qantaslink's Dash 8Q aircraft however both routes will see an up gauge with Central 2 up gauging to Q400 and Central 1 to Q300.

Losers

The big loser from this announcement is Skytrans who have lost almost all their regulated routes (to Rex) this comes hot on the heels of their loss of their Toowoomba - Sydney service which is ceasing due to the introduction of the new Qantaslink Q400 Wellcamp - Sydney services.

Skytrans cling onto life with their own services around Cape York and on the Cairns - Mt Isa route as well as their FIFO charters.  The Cape York network is as follows;

The Lockhart River, Coen, Arurkun services which operates the following different patterns on different days
Cairns - Aurukun - Coen - Lockhart River - Cairns (M)
Cairns - Coen - Lockhart River - Aurukun - Cairns (W, F)
Cairns - Lockhart River - Aurukun - Cairns (Tu, Th)

Mt Isa services
Cairns - Mt Isa (M-Tu, Th-F)
Mt Isa - Cairns (M, W-F)

The Edward River (Pormpuraaw) and Kowanyama service
Cairns - Edward River - Kowanyama - Cairns (M, Th)
Cairns - Kowanyama - Edward River - Cairns (Tu, F)

The Cape route to Bamaga
Cairns - Bamaga - Cairns (M-F)

The loss of the Western 1 & 2 contracts will see the end of Skytrans operating scheduled services from Brisbane however they will continue to maintain a presence through FIFO contracts.

Another loser in all of this is Virgin Australia Regional Airlines (VARA) who have for quite sometime been trying to get access into the Queensland regional routes, and have often been thwarted by the regulated route structure.  VARA tendered but did not win any of the available routes.  There only options for possible extensions to regional Queensland flying comes from existing routes or the below deregulated routes.
Time will tell if previous threats made by Virgin CEO John Borghetti to the Queensland Government regarding implications of the lack of access to the Queensland regions come to pass.

Start & Deregulations

All existing contracts end on 31-December-2014 with new contracts beginning on 1-January-2015.  

At the same time the following regulated routes, currently operated by Qantaslink  will be deregulated and opened to competition;
Townsville - Cloncurry - Mt Isa
Cairns - Horn Island
Cairns - Weipa

Learn More

Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport have welcomed Rex via a post on their Facebook Page

There is an article on the announcement from Brisbane Times reporter Cameron Atfield HERE

REX buck the Australian trend

Bucking the trend of fellow Australian operators and joining Air New Zealand in announcing a profit was Rex with a full year profit before tax of $10.7m($AUD) with a net profit of $7.725m ($AUD) this was down 44.9% on the FY13 net profit.

Despite posting a profit REX has warned that the Australian Aviation market is in deep crisis pointing to the losses made by Qantas and Virgin and listing the 16 different regional carriers who have collapsed and ceased operations since 9/11

Rex executive chairman Lim Kim Hai said the carbon tax, an increased fuel levy to fund the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and record fuel prices were all negative factors in 2013/14.

There were a few announcements of note in the release, FY14 saw REX take full ownership of its 51 frame SF340B+ fleet purchasing the remaining 18 frames that came off lease at the end of March 2014.

Its subsidiary Pel-Air has secured contract extensions for some of its SA based mining charter operations and has tendered for the dedicated search and reduce service for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority which will be announced later this year.  In FY14 the Pel-Air contract for fast jet support to the Australian Defence Force was also renewed by the Federal Government.  Pel-Air has also launched a number of SF340B+ flights in Queensland in support of resource sector FIFO operations.

Subsidiary Air Link began a Sydney - Cobar charter service in October 2013 and has also re-commenced RPT services this month, with a twice weekly SYD-DBO 1900D service.

REX is awaiting the outcome of its tenders to the Queensland Government to operate regulated regional Queensland routes which will be announced in October.  REX currently services the TSV-WIN-LRE* and TSV-HGD-RCM-JCK-ISA^ routes with a current contract end of 31 December 2014.  REX also launched a 3x daily SYD-ARM service on 28 March 2014 after an expression of interest period from local councils within a 600km radius of SYD, brought about by a network review and the recruitment of 11 former pilots of recently collapse competitor Brindabella Airlines.  

Read the media release, investor briefing and annual report as released to the ASX HERE


* Townsville - Winton - Longreach
^ Townsville - Hughenden - Richmond - Julia Creek - Mt Isa

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

End of the line for Vincent in Australia?

Its been a sad day for Vincent Aviation's Australian entity and for regional Australian aviation, with receivers appointed who have ceased trading and flying while they investigate the business.

The grounding does not effect Vincent Aviation Limited the New Zealand based parent company.

At news of the shutdown Vincent Aviation's BAE 146 ZK-ECO which has operated FIFO charters mainly on the BNE-RMA-BNE route ferried from BNE back to WLG.

Vincent operated the 146 along with 4x Saab SF340's and 5 B1900Ds on RPT and FIFO rotes manly from their Darwin base but recently had launched the SYD-NAA (Narrabri) replacing former operator Brindabella who collapsed earlier this year.

This is a blow as I know a couple of people who work for Vincent who know have uncertain futures, my thoughts are with them at this time

Read the full announcement form the Receivers HERE and the article from Australian Aviation HERE

Here is a photo of ZK-ECO at YBBN last year during better times

Rex profits drops sharply on back of Carbon Tax

In a week of ups and downs for Australasian airlines, Regional Express Holdings have announced a profit slump of 45% with a before tax profit of $19.2m (AUD)

An outspoken critic of government policy, executive chairman Lim Kim Hai said: “This would ordinarily be grounds for much jubilation but instead we at Rex are all too painfully aware that this pole position is an aberration arising from one of the most toxic environments ever to face aviation in Australia.”
Rex ended the year with profits down 45 per cent and passenger numbers down 6.8 per cent.

Rex have fairly and squarely set the loss at the feet of the government's controversial carbon tax, and blasted the government for its implementation, despite the fact Rex recorded a profit more than twice as large as the Qantas group.

Read more on the Rex profit and Chairman Lim Kim Hai's attack on the government at Australian Aviation HERE