Was landing behind, to my delightful surprise, an Air NZ A320 at PMR yesterday. It was operating for Freedom Air. My question is, do they keep the same seating configuration as the Air NZ standard, or do they take out business class and cram more seats in. If they keep the Air NZ config, are passengers allowed to sit in business class?

Cheers,
NZ747

Alright here's the jist. OJM is registered to Freedom Air and operating Freedom services but on the Air New Zealand AOC. It has an identical configuration to all the other NZ A320's (which OJK and OJL will be re-configured to in the near future). The Business class section or 'Suite seats' will be available for purchase from Nov. 16. In the meantime it's a lucky select few that get to use them. Asking will not get you one of these seats! The aircraft is operated by Air NZ pilots and Freedom Cabin Crew and will be until Freedom has more of its pilots finish their A320 ratings.

Quoting NZ747 (Thread starter): It has an identical configuration to all the other NZ A320's

identical ? I thought same seats but reduced pitch - or have they realised how daft an idea that is when swapping aircraft around to perform services under both brands

Yes I was under that impression to initally but OJM has the same 8/136 config as the rest of the Air NZ fleet. Weather this changes in the future I don't know but for now 146 is the capacity.

Quoting Mr AirNZ (Reply 3): Yes I was under that impression to initally but OJM has the same 8/136 config as the rest of the Air NZ fleet. Weather this changes in the future I don't know but for now 146 is the capacity.

hopefully commonsense has prevailed then - if the intention is to be able to cross-utilise these a/c a common configuration is the only way to go - while I am sure that SJ pax would be delighted to find that they have a more generous layout in the event of a swap I can imagine NZ pax being quite rightly annoyed in the reverse situation .

When does NZ and SJ start operating their A320s under the same AOC?

The process was put on hold earlier this month. To be resumed at a later date.

It seems to me that if the two products are reaching the stage where they are virtually identical - ie same seating / aircraft layout you surely must reach the point where it is not worth maintaining two separate brands . Sure the SJ fares are non-airpoints earning - but so are all the "SMARTSAVER" fares on NZ . It is interesting that AC got rid of their separate Tango operation and introduced Tango as a fare type on their mainline product - in similar vein NZ could make all the inventory on the "SJ" routes available in the same categories . The only other difference I can see between SJ and NZ ops is that NZ still makes the pretence of throwing some slop at you on their "tasman express" and "pacific express" flights - but then again if the aircraft are going to be identically configured for interchange then presumable the SJ fleet will find themselves with a galley for when they do NZ ops ( I guess another problem with getting rid of the Freedom brand would be the controversy over the new NZ uniforms - maybe the SJ staff would baulk at changing their uniform   )

Quoting Mr AirNZ (Reply 3): Yes I was under that impression to initally but OJM has the same 8/136 config as the rest of the Air NZ fleet.

That is correct - I boarded OJM the other day as NZ48 to RAR. It was certainly the same seats as all the other NZ aircraft.