NZ | Airports + Aviation News

[camfloss]

Originally Posted by jarden

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7ScRlXNDhI

For those interested, here is a recent speech by Christopher Luxon. At the Trenz 2013 meeting.
Plan for the next 5 years is to go beyond and really grow the business faster than before.

He confirms Skycouch will come to 772's and 789's and 2 extra 77W will replace the 747 on SFO.
They will refurb the ATR72-500 fleet. China will be their biggest market soon. Demand is up 71% this year alone.

Thanks for posting that Jarden, sounds like exciting times ahead for Air NZ.

[camfloss]

Airport makes case for runway extension


Direct long-haul flights are "arguably the most significant thing the Wellington region can do to realise its economic potential", Wellington Airport says.

In March, the airport confirmed it was considering a 300-metre extension north into Evans Bay at a projected cost of $300 million - or $1m a metre.

Depending on the planning and consent process, the extension could be finished by 2018, airport spokesman Greg Thomas said yesterday.

"The economic benefit for the region makes a runway extension highly viable from a cost-benefit perspective, and it is likely to be a project that would justify both private and public funding."

The extension would allow long-haul flights to and from Asia, and connections to Europe, with new-generation aircraft such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A350.

"The strong demand for long- haul is supported by a highly mobile and affluent Wellington market," Mr Thomas said.

"Wellington has the highest GDP per capita in New Zealand, higher wages and a relatively low cost of living. These factors, coupled with the highest proportion of business travellers in New Zealand, being the capital and home of government, are a compelling proposition for long- haul," Mr Thomas said.

Extra tourism could pump $44m a year into the local economy and create more than 300 jobs, while increased exposure to the global student market could create 1200 new jobs and $70m a year in regional benefits, he said.

Wellington City Council's airport board representative, Ian McKinnon, said that although long-haul routes were desirable, they were not something you could "just click your fingers for".

Mayor Celia Wade-Brown hinted this week an announcement over the proposed runway extension and long-haul flights would be made in July.

An Air New Zealand spokeswoman said the airline was always assessing its routes. "However, we don't have any plans to operate long-haul flights from Wellington."



http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post...nway-extension

[jarden]

Boeing is ahead of schedule in reaching what Air New Zealand says is a major milestone in building the airline's 787-9 Dreamliner.

The first major part for the aircraft's tailplane has arrived at Boeing's Everett factory in Seattle, three weeks ahead of schedule.

"The aircraft is approaching the crucial final assembly phase which means the horizontal stabiliser section that arrived this week from another US based Boeing facility is the first of many that will be delivered to Seattle over the coming weeks to form the world's first ever 787-9 aircraft," the airline said.

While the Dreamliner programme was three years behind schedule and has been knocked back by battery fire problems this year, Boeing says Air New Zealand's next generation aircraft will be delivered early next year.

Air New Zealand's chief executive Christopher Luxon said the the airline would get 10 of the aircraft between 2014 and 2017.

"It's hugely exciting to see the first ever 787-9 taking shape because of the significant growth opportunities these aircraft present for our business. Having 10 new long haul aircraft enter our fleet over the next four years means we will be able to add more capacity and greater frequency to existing destinations, as well as explore new destination opportunities throughout the Pacific Rim," he said.


Although the airline has not been specific, the aircraft has the capability of opening up markets in Latin America and India.

The airline is the launch customer for the 787-9 which is longer than the 787-8 currently in operation although the final number of seats and cabin configuration has not been determined.

"Not only does this herald a significant growth phase for us, we'll be able to do it with super efficient new aircraft. These aircraft use 20 per cent less fuel than similar size alternatives which means they're both cost effective to operate and environmentally sound."

The vice president of marketing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Randy Tinseth said receiving the first major part was "an exciting and visible sign of the progress" on the 787-9.

Air New Zealand said it planned to use the aircraft to operate on the airline's international network from mid 2014.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/n...ectid=10882563

[jarden]

NZ and VA have asked the ACCC and the Commerce Commission for permission to cancel the codeshare agreement without capacity restrictions when it comes up for renewal in December, but several airports and business leaders have put in submissions saying airfares will rise and capacity will drop.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/indu...ts-fight-brews

I hope the agreement isn't cancelled or else airfares will rise and capacity will decrease till a new competitor arrives.

[jarden]

From Airliners.net. Looks as if Air NZ will end its Osaka-Kansai flights later this year.
Tokyo will go to daily 772 operation year round.

[jarden]

Air New Zealand has revealed it will cut its Osaka service and refocus its attention on Tokyo due to lower yields out of Japan.

The national carrier said today it would "suspend" its Osaka services indefinitely from September 30.

The weaker Japanese currency had impacted on the airline's profitability when repatriating revenues from the route.

"The Bank of Japan's change in monetary policy which emerged earlier this year resulting in a structurally weaker yen has significantly impacted profitability on the Japan routes," said Air New Zealand spokesperson Emma Field.

"The weaker yen results in lower New Zealand dollar receipts."

But deputy chief executive Norm Thompson said Air New Zealand was still determined to grow traffic to and from Japan, and believed this could be done by focusing on Tokyo.

Next year's arrival of the 787-9 Dreamliner to the airline, with its greater capacity and fuel efficiency, meant the airline would build offer more than 300 seats of daily service to and from Tokyo.

Air New Zealand currently operates a combination of 280 seat Boeing 777-200 and 230 seat 767-300 aircraft on the Auckland-Tokyo route.

The company said it also planned to significantly increase its summer charter programme from both eastern and western Japan.

"Japan has been a very important market to Air New Zealand for more than 30 years and it continues to be a significant focus for the airline,'' Thompson said.

Japan remains New Zealand's fifth largest tourist market attracting 75,472 visitors in the year to March, up 16 per cent on the previous year.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/8671...-Osaka-flights

Qantas, Emirates partnership gets the nod by NZ govt:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/n...ectid=10883775

[SYDNEY]

Wellington Airport annual profit jumps

Wellington International Airport, which was deemed by the Commerce Commission to be extracting excessive profits in February, posted a 20 per cent increase in full-year revenue from its three main airline customers, its results show. Revenue from Air New Zealand, Qantas Airways and Virgin Australia rose to $62.2 million in the 12 months ended March 31, from $51.7 million a year earlier, according to its annual financial statements. That made the biggest contribution to the airport's overall sales, which climbed to $106.2 million from $99.5 million. Net profit jumped to $16.2 million from $8.98 million. In February, the commission released its final assessment of returns for the airport, which it concluded would be between $38 million and $69 million more than it needs to for a reasonable return between 2012 and 2017. The airport, which is 66 per cent owned by Infratil and 34 per cent by Wellington City Council, is challenging the regulator's input methodologies, and said today its returns were "well below the commission's benchmark," while its per-passenger charges were at the low end of the range of its peers ... MORE

[SYDNEY]

Emirates adds third A380 to NZ

Emirates is upgrading its services out of New Zealand by putting on a third superjumbo. From October the airline will use an A380 to fly the daily Auckland-Brisbane-Dubai service replacing the smaller Boeing 777-300. The addition of the new plane will add nearly nearly 1000 seats a week in each direction. Auckland will from October become the first airport outside Emirates' Dubai hub to have three Airbus A380 aircraft on the ground at one time when the double-decker aircraft is introduced. The move follows the same upscaling on the Auckland-Melbourne-Dubai route last October, and the introduction of an A380 on the Auckland-Sydney-Dubai route in 2009 ... MORE

[nthbeach]

Originally Posted by SYDNEY

Emirates adds third A380 to NZ

Emirates is upgrading its services out of New Zealand by putting on a third superjumbo. From October the airline will use an A380 to fly the daily Auckland-Brisbane-Dubai service replacing the smaller Boeing 777-300. The addition of the new plane will add nearly nearly 1000 seats a week in each direction. Auckland will from October become the first airport outside Emirates' Dubai hub to have three Airbus A380 aircraft on the ground at one time when the double-decker aircraft is introduced. The move follows the same upscaling on the Auckland-Melbourne-Dubai route last October, and the introduction of an A380 on the Auckland-Sydney-Dubai route in 2009 ... MORE

[Davee]

I flew Emirates in and out of Christchurch when I was at home in May - brilliant airline and service.

[SYDNEY]

Air NZ Fairy to be showcased at Google conference

Air New Zealand continues its leadership in the digital space teaming up with Google to showcase its Air New Zealand Fairy website at Google’s annual developer conference – Google I/O - in San Francisco. Jodi Williams, Head of Global Brand Development at Air New Zealand, says it’s an honour to be one of just 70 companies in the world to be invited to show its product at this week’s event. “Air New Zealand recognises the importance of social media and prides itself on its innovation in this space. “Air New Zealand is the 36th largest airline in the world but is one of the leading airlines when it comes to social media,” says Ms Williams. Google I/O is attended by more than 5,500 web, mobile and enterprise developers and features in-depth sessions showcasing the latest developments from Google’s product teams and partners. Air New Zealand’s Fairy website has been built for optimal performance in Google Chrome using the latest Google+ social sign-in to connect to the site ... MORE

[jarden]

Air New Zealand has today announced a policy that will bar disabled passengers from being able to book tickets on both domestic and international flights, in order to help prevent future inconvenience to normal, human passengers.

The decision follows an incident earlier this week on a flight from Auckland to Wellington, in which an Air New Zealand gold elite passenger was humiliated when she was asked to leave her seat for the benefit of a wheelchair-bound woman who could not conveniently move to another one.

Air New Zealand has since apologised to that gold elite passenger and had a stern word with the disabled woman, 39-year-old Tanya Black. Ms. Black has subsequently appeared on TV One’s Seven Sharp to apologise for her behaviour, but it has done little to quell public outrage over the incident.

In response to that outrage, the airline held a press conference this morning to announce a new policy on the disabled.

“Air New Zealand would like to announce this morning that it is no longer allowing physically or mentally disabled passengers on any of our domestic or international flights,” said chief executive Christopher Luxon. “What happened to our gold elite passenger earlier this week was unacceptable. No customer should be forced to endure a lengthy one hour flight, including taxiing to and from the gate, in a seat with a different arbitrary number and slightly varied location to the one they booked; and certainly not for the benefit of a cripple.”

The announcement has so far been well received by the public, as well as frequent fliers like traveling businessman Jarrod Shaw, who himself is a gold elite member.

“I’m really glad Air New Zealand has had the courage to take these steps,” he said. “When I first saw what happened on the news, I said to myself ‘Woah, that could’ve been me.’”

The company has said it will be taking extensive security measures to prevent any disabled passengers getting on their planes, and will not hesitate to forcibly handle paraplegics who try to pretend they can walk.

Luxon said that Air New Zealand would not rule out establishing disabled-only routes, and said they could have some running between select cities in the near future.

“It probably wouldn’t be too much of an inconvenience for us,” he said. “We’d just use some old cargo planes we’ve got lying around.”

http://www.thecivilian.co.nz/air-new...m-all-flights/

[KiwiGuy]

Airport Operation Slammed

http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/n...ration-slammed

Nelson Airport was the Nelson and Tasman councils' biggest "under achieving asset", yet presented the largest scope for reducing the burden on ratepayers, city councillors have heard.

Retired engineer Steve Cross said during his submission yesterday to the city council's Annual Plan that while the council deserved a bouquet for holding down water charges, it deserved a brickbat in three areas.

They were events funding, wages and salaries and underperformance of council assets, such as the airport company which he said needed to "stop running like a big aero club".

Nelson Airport is jointly owned by the Nelson and Tasman councils.

"Council owns a number of assets which are meant to be revenue-producing investments but which increasingly are becoming more like liabilities," Mr Cross said.

He said the "problem child" in respect to council-owned investments was Nelson Airport Ltd, which represented an opportunity for "significant revenue enhancement" which could be used to reduce the rates burden or reduce forecast debt.

"Every extra dollar extracted from investments meant another dollar that did not have to come from ratepayers," Mr Cross said.

He described the airport company's financial performance as "particularly shabby", and that ratepayers were "subsidising air travel" in and out of Nelson based on substandard returns on the "very substantial investment" the council had in the business.

Figures which featured in a presentation by Auckland International Airport, sourced from Australasian benchmarking service Airbiz, showed Nelson Airport domestic charges were "far lower" than its peers.

The table included in Mr Cross' submission showed that aeronautical charges [charges that are directly related to the operation of an aircraft at an airport] based on a Q300 aircraft of the type operated by Air New Zealand Link, were $3.10 per passenger in Nelson and $5.50 in Auckland.

Charges per passenger were lower in Nelson than any of the eight other major airports in the country, while it maintained its status as one of the country's busiest airports.

Aeronautical revenue from the 776,751 passengers through Nelson last year was $2.4 million while total revenue was $4.9m. Mr Cross suggested an increase in landing fees of around $3 per passenger was "not going to cause a stampede of customers away from using the airport", but it would bring Nelson Airport closer to its peers and would "start giving shareholders a reasonable return".

"It is being run as a social service, not a commercial business," Mr Cross said.

He said the council, as a shareholder, needed to take some steps to encourage better performance from the company.

The company paid its shareholders a total $825,000 in 2012, which Mr Cross said was "pathetic".

"A dairy farmer farming the land could have done better," he said.

The company gained "huge benefit" from its long-term lease of 118 hectares of prime land, at a peppercorn rental. The value of the land did not feature on the company's balance sheet, unlike other airport companies which owned the land they operated from, Mr Cross said.

Among a list of suggestions that might lift performance and return dividends of up to $1m to each shareholder, Mr Cross said Nelson city should follow the lead of Tasman district and set up a commercial subcommittee to focus on investments.

Airport company chairman Paul Steere said they were compiling a comprehensive response to Mr Cross' submission, which would be presented in the first instance to the city council.

[KIWIKAAS]

Originally Posted by jarden

Air New Zealand has today announced a policy that will bar disabled passengers from being able to book tickets on both domestic and international flights, in order to help prevent future inconvenience to normal, human passengers.

The decision follows an incident earlier this week on a flight from Auckland to Wellington, in which an Air New Zealand gold elite passenger was humiliated when she was asked to leave her seat for the benefit of a wheelchair-bound woman who could not conveniently move to another one.

Air New Zealand has since apologised to that gold elite passenger and had a stern word with the disabled woman, 39-year-old Tanya Black. Ms. Black has subsequently appeared on TV One’s Seven Sharp to apologise for her behaviour, but it has done little to quell public outrage over the incident.

In response to that outrage, the airline held a press conference this morning to announce a new policy on the disabled.

“Air New Zealand would like to announce this morning that it is no longer allowing physically or mentally disabled passengers on any of our domestic or international flights,” said chief executive Christopher Luxon. “What happened to our gold elite passenger earlier this week was unacceptable. No customer should be forced to endure a lengthy one hour flight, including taxiing to and from the gate, in a seat with a different arbitrary number and slightly varied location to the one they booked; and certainly not for the benefit of a cripple.”

The announcement has so far been well received by the public, as well as frequent fliers like traveling businessman Jarrod Shaw, who himself is a gold elite member.

“I’m really glad Air New Zealand has had the courage to take these steps,” he said. “When I first saw what happened on the news, I said to myself ‘Woah, that could’ve been me.’”

The company has said it will be taking extensive security measures to prevent any disabled passengers getting on their planes, and will not hesitate to forcibly handle paraplegics who try to pretend they can walk.

Luxon said that Air New Zealand would not rule out establishing disabled-only routes, and said they could have some running between select cities in the near future.

“It probably wouldn’t be too much of an inconvenience for us,” he said. “We’d just use some old cargo planes we’ve got lying around.”

http://www.thecivilian.co.nz/air-new...m-all-flights/

April 1st has long been and gone

[camfloss]

Originally Posted by KiwiGuy

Airport Operation Slammed

http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/n...ration-slammed

So a retired engineer is a finance expert? The fact is Nelson airport's return on equity is far ahead of all other regional airports in the rest of New Zealand. You can't compare Nelson airport with the likes of Auckland and Wellington.Putting up landing charges is just going to make it even more expensive to fly out of there than it already is. It may even mean cuts to services. "Rate payers subsidising air travel"?? that's false economics and logic. The article fails to mention that of that 4.9 million dollars in total revenue generated in 2012 around 1.8 million or 37% was returned to the company as profit. Rate payers are not subsidising anything.

Airports exist primarily to provide critical transport infrastructure to the public, not subsidise local government administration!!! Rate payers would pay less if the council earned more from it's investments?? yeah right... they would just create new departments and put up their salaries as a bonus for their good performance...

[jarden]

Originally Posted by KIWIKAAS

April 1st has long been and gone

Yeah but has not been posted before and I thought it was a noteworthy article.

[Milan Luka]

Originally Posted by KIWIKAAS

April 1st has long been and gone

Wow. I didn't know New Zealand had it's own version of the Onion. I actually lol'ed once or twice.