Welcome to the New Zealand Aviation Thread - December 2021. Please add your comments below

Link to last thread

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1466399

Question for the avgeeks here. Given Luxon is now leader of the opposition and immediately made claims he turned Air NZ around from a loss making business into a success. How much truth is there to his claim? I've seen more than a few people saying he was anything but good, and stepped into a well performing business just as international travel was really kicking off and then stepped out just before covid hit.

Yes I know this is part politics, so the focus is more on his claim that he turned Air NZ around, not any of his or National's other policies. The aviation angle that is on topic.

ZaphodHarkonnen wrote:

Question for the avgeeks here. Given Luxon is now leader of the opposition and immediately made claims he turned Air NZ around from a loss making business into a success. How much truth is there to his claim? I've seen more than a few people saying he was anything but good, and stepped into a well performing business just as international travel was really kicking off and then stepped out just before covid hit.

Yes I know this is part politics, so the focus is more on his claim that he turned Air NZ around, not any of his or National's other policies. The aviation angle that is on topic.

Yes my recollection is that Rob Fyfe was at the helm during most of the turnaround. IIRC profits started to decline during Luxon’s stewardship. Not saying that was down to him, though.

DavidByrne wrote:

ZaphodHarkonnen wrote:

Question for the avgeeks here. Given Luxon is now leader of the opposition and immediately made claims he turned Air NZ around from a loss making business into a success. How much truth is there to his claim? I've seen more than a few people saying he was anything but good, and stepped into a well performing business just as international travel was really kicking off and then stepped out just before covid hit.

Yes I know this is part politics, so the focus is more on his claim that he turned Air NZ around, not any of his or National's other policies. The aviation angle that is on topic.

Yes my recollection is that Rob Fyfe was at the helm during most of the turnaround. IIRC profits started to decline during Luxon’s stewardship. Not saying that was down to him, though.

I think I remember hearing/ reading (maybe on these forums) that Christopher Luxon, was the reason that Air NZ didn’t get any 77L’s. Not sure that would have made much difference to the airline though. I guess they maybe could have started EWR earlier…?

He kicked the can down the road quite a bit, bloated middle management then tried to trim costs out in places that while not ideal long-term at least dulled the decline in profits.

It feels a lot like he was the benefactor of the platform Ralph Norris and Rob Fyfe established for him.

The main effect of the bloated management for employees was that it insulated him fairly well and he became a ghost dispatching corporate double-speak from Fanshawe St. The current CEO is a very positive contrast and I think most feel fortunate to have him through COVID.

Avtur wrote:

DavidByrne wrote:

ZaphodHarkonnen wrote:

Question for the avgeeks here. Given Luxon is now leader of the opposition and immediately made claims he turned Air NZ around from a loss making business into a success. How much truth is there to his claim? I've seen more than a few people saying he was anything but good, and stepped into a well performing business just as international travel was really kicking off and then stepped out just before covid hit.

Yes I know this is part politics, so the focus is more on his claim that he turned Air NZ around, not any of his or National's other policies. The aviation angle that is on topic.

Yes my recollection is that Rob Fyfe was at the helm during most of the turnaround. IIRC profits started to decline during Luxon’s stewardship. Not saying that was down to him, though.

I think I remember hearing/ reading (maybe on these forums) that Christopher Luxon, was the reason that Air NZ didn’t get any 77L’s. Not sure that would have made much difference to the airline though. I guess they maybe could have started EWR earlier…?

Interesting comments all around here, I am quite sure if was Fyfe that called the 77L a flying fuel tank and had no interest in that frame, by the time Luxon came the 789s were finally almost here and there wasn’t really a need for 77Ls which could have been used for ORD aswell if they got them.

I thought while Norris with the domestic express service, A320 purchase, 772 purchase and 744 refits.

then Fyfe with a bit of expansion and tweaking the network which was still loss making I thought until towards the end of his time long haul atleast.

Luxon then added SIN/IAH:EZE/ORD/TPE/ICN and made the focus more pacific rim cutting LHR, yes he made the most of what went before him but expanded greatly and the airline made some pretty healthy profits all over.

VirginFlyer wrote:

concordianSYD wrote:
This thread is almost unreadable. The spelling and grammar is disgraceful.

Wait till you hear our accents!

But yes, we do seem to be particularly bad with the there/they’re/their and your/you’re in this country - I don’t know if it is actually something to do with the accent where we lose the distinction between them in pronunciation like bear/bare/beer (you may perhaps remember the TV ads in Australia from 15 odd years ago for Bundaberg Rum - “Beer for the Bear!”)

Doesn't seem to be on topic - is this up for deletion as well?

Re the 12 777's it seems someone has got their wires crossed?

Air NZ has officially retired the 772's.

I've not heard about bringing them back (if that's even possible). I can't see the airline going from almost no commercial flying to needing 12 extra widebodies (on top of the 14 787's) in the space of a 8 months.

Perhaps looking to grow international fleet to 12 operational passenger frames?

NZ6 wrote:

Re the 12 777's it seems someone has got their wires crossed?

Air NZ has officially retired the 772's.

I've not heard about bringing them back (if that's even possible). I can't see the airline going from almost no commercial flying to needing 12 extra widebodies (on top of the 14 787's) in the space of a 8 months.

Perhaps looking to grow international fleet to 12 operational passenger frames?

Agree.

Technically or even not technically there are 14 pax aircraft operational now in the 789 fleet. I still struggle to see the need for much if anything more for some time, there are probably 5 789s maybe actually flying pax at a time however if that.

It does say 107 pilots in 2022 and another 123 in 2023, are they all for the wide body fleet though and are they all for the 777.

Christchurch Airport is going to build a $100m solar energy park using 400 hectares of it's spare land. This is a first for a New Zealand airport good on them I say!

https://i.stuff.co.nz/environment/clima ... ew-zealand

EWR announcement soon?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/air-n ... Y5ALLORKA/

NZ516 wrote:

Christchurch Airport is going to build a $100m solar energy park using 400 hectares of it's spare land. This is a first for a New Zealand airport good on them I say!

https://i.stuff.co.nz/environment/clima ... ew-zealand

I had just been talking to some others yesterday as to why NZ airports are not covering the land they own in solar panels. (≧∇≦)ﾉ

Last original 320 going
OJM is flying today AKL to CNS NZ6002 at 1100 leaving for the last time
Then onto SIN tomorrow at 1000 same flight number

NZ516 wrote:

Last original 320 going
OJM is flying today AKL to CNS NZ6002 at 1100 leaving for the last time
Then onto SIN tomorrow at 1000 same flight number

SIN for maintenance then returning. This last machine isn't done yet.

Mr AirNZ wrote:

NZ516 wrote:

Last original 320 going
OJM is flying today AKL to CNS NZ6002 at 1100 leaving for the last time
Then onto SIN tomorrow at 1000 same flight number

SIN for maintenance then returning. This last machine isn't done yet.

It's unusual to get 320 maintenance done in SIN. Must be short of space for it here then.

NZ6 wrote:

VirginFlyer wrote:

concordianSYD wrote:

This thread is almost unreadable. The spelling and grammar is disgraceful.

Wait till you hear our accents!

But yes, we do seem to be particularly bad with the there/they’re/their and your/you’re in this country - I don’t know if it is actually something to do with the accent where we lose the distinction between them in pronunciation like bear/bare/beer (you may perhaps remember the TV ads in Australia from 15 odd years ago for Bundaberg Rum - “Beer for the Bear!”)

Doesn't seem to be on topic - is this up for deletion as well?

Hey I thought it was a reasonable concern, expressed most inarticulately and unhelpfully, which I attempted to offer a fair response to.

Perhaps you might like to share some insight on the other part of the post:

VirginFlyer wrote:

Back on topic, it’s interesting to see Air New Zealand has daily flights (some days more than one) between Auckland and Tauranga next week, and several daily flights between Auckland and Blenheim and Auckland and Nelson. All the other regional destinations from Auckland are either zero (Rotorua, Taupō) or have only the occasional flight (Gisborne, Kerikeri, Napier, New Plymouth, Palmerston North) except for Whangarei, which has two daily flights from Auckland as part of the positioning for WRE-WLG. I wonder what the story is with Tauranga, Blenheim, and Nelson? Regular flights for seasonal fruit pickers perhaps, which they are opening up left-over seats for sale?

V/F

Mr AirNZ wrote:

NZ516 wrote:

Last original 320 going
OJM is flying today AKL to CNS NZ6002 at 1100 leaving for the last time
Then onto SIN tomorrow at 1000 same flight number

SIN for maintenance then returning. This last machine isn't done yet.

Excellent news! How much longer is it expected to stay in the fleet for?

VirginFlyer wrote:

NZ6 wrote:

VirginFlyer wrote:

Wait till you hear our accents!

But yes, we do seem to be particularly bad with the there/they’re/their and your/you’re in this country - I don’t know if it is actually something to do with the accent where we lose the distinction between them in pronunciation like bear/bare/beer (you may perhaps remember the TV ads in Australia from 15 odd years ago for Bundaberg Rum - “Beer for the Bear!”)

Doesn't seem to be on topic - is this up for deletion as well?

Hey I thought it was a reasonable concern, expressed most inarticulately and unhelpfully, which I attempted to offer a fair response to.

Perhaps you might like to share some insight on the other part of the post:

VirginFlyer wrote:

Back on topic, it’s interesting to see Air New Zealand has daily flights (some days more than one) between Auckland and Tauranga next week, and several daily flights between Auckland and Blenheim and Auckland and Nelson. All the other regional destinations from Auckland are either zero (Rotorua, Taupō) or have only the occasional flight (Gisborne, Kerikeri, Napier, New Plymouth, Palmerston North) except for Whangarei, which has two daily flights from Auckland as part of the positioning for WRE-WLG. I wonder what the story is with Tauranga, Blenheim, and Nelson? Regular flights for seasonal fruit pickers perhaps, which they are opening up left-over seats for sale?

V/F

Well I feel the wider topic around vaccinations and policy and how it effects the border policy and aviation has more relevance to the topic than spelling and grammar yet many of our posts have been deleted for being "off topic". I'm just calling it out with a slight bit of tongue and cheek, after all what's good for one group must also be good for the other.

As for your other part... many places simply don't have enough freight and/or passengers moving in and out of AKL with the border rules in place. The flights you see are not charters, they're not "empty" and they're not freight only flights...

My understanding is that the reporter has gotten confused. The 77W are to come back, and NZ will initially have 12 wide body aircraft scheduled to fly at any one time (with the low demand right now that doesn’t preclude having 14x 789 + 6x 77W all operational at low utilisation rates while things pick up). Remember it’s going to take a considerable amount of time to retrain pilots in particular, but also cabin crew (that is if previous cabin crew are even still available, otherwise it’ll take even longer ~1 week versus ~6 weeks that might be able to be condensed down to 5).

Massive freight demand into NZ at present results in DHL leasing pax airliners:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/dhl ... HIGZTGKKU/

VirginFlyer wrote:

NZ6 wrote:

VirginFlyer wrote:

Wait till you hear our accents!

But yes, we do seem to be particularly bad with the there/they’re/their and your/you’re in this country - I don’t know if it is actually something to do with the accent where we lose the distinction between them in pronunciation like bear/bare/beer (you may perhaps remember the TV ads in Australia from 15 odd years ago for Bundaberg Rum - “Beer for the Bear!”)

Doesn't seem to be on topic - is this up for deletion as well?

Hey I thought it was a reasonable concern, expressed most inarticulately and unhelpfully, which I attempted to offer a fair response to.

Perhaps you might like to share some insight on the other part of the post:

VirginFlyer wrote:

Back on topic, it’s interesting to see Air New Zealand has daily flights (some days more than one) between Auckland and Tauranga next week, and several daily flights between Auckland and Blenheim and Auckland and Nelson. All the other regional destinations from Auckland are either zero (Rotorua, Taupō) or have only the occasional flight (Gisborne, Kerikeri, Napier, New Plymouth, Palmerston North) except for Whangarei, which has two daily flights from Auckland as part of the positioning for WRE-WLG. I wonder what the story is with Tauranga, Blenheim, and Nelson? Regular flights for seasonal fruit pickers perhaps, which they are opening up left-over seats for sale?

V/F

I for one was glad you raised the issue of how poor we are with grammar and spelling. It’s the single biggest thing which IMO seriously devalues this thread.

Odd that OJM is still in the fleet. Having said that even stranger is that the latest A320NEO to arrive NHE has still to enter revenue service. It's sister NHF which arrived around the same time has been active for two weeks now. Has NHE been put into storage?

NZ6 wrote:

VirginFlyer wrote:

NZ6 wrote:

Doesn't seem to be on topic - is this up for deletion as well?

Hey I thought it was a reasonable concern, expressed most inarticulately and unhelpfully, which I attempted to offer a fair response to.

Perhaps you might like to share some insight on the other part of the post:

VirginFlyer wrote:

Back on topic, it’s interesting to see Air New Zealand has daily flights (some days more than one) between Auckland and Tauranga next week, and several daily flights between Auckland and Blenheim and Auckland and Nelson. All the other regional destinations from Auckland are either zero (Rotorua, Taupō) or have only the occasional flight (Gisborne, Kerikeri, Napier, New Plymouth, Palmerston North) except for Whangarei, which has two daily flights from Auckland as part of the positioning for WRE-WLG. I wonder what the story is with Tauranga, Blenheim, and Nelson? Regular flights for seasonal fruit pickers perhaps, which they are opening up left-over seats for sale?

V/F

Well I feel the wider topic around vaccinations and policy and how it effects the border policy and aviation has more relevance to the topic than spelling and grammar yet many of our posts have been deleted for being "off topic". I'm just calling it out with a slight bit of tongue and cheek, after all what's good for one group must also be good for the other.

As for your other part... many places simply don't have enough freight and/or passengers moving in and out of AKL with the border rules in place. The flights you see are not charters, they're not "empty" and they're not freight only flights...

Oh right! I’ve been a bit behind the eight ball on this thread, only catching up every few days, so I must have missed the context. Apologies for not understanding what you were getting at!

V/F

GW54 wrote:

Odd that OJM is still in the fleet. Having said that even stranger is that the latest A320NEO to arrive NHE has still to enter revenue service. It's sister NHF which arrived around the same time has been active for two weeks now. Has NHE been put into storage?

Maybe keeping OJM over summer as an backup aircraft? And will leave in early 2022?

They keep a couple of the CEO’s over the last summer break, for them to leave in early 2021.

OJM’s costs are probably pretty low, with its future likely as an Coke can. They are probably trying to get the hours out of it before it’s retired.

On FR24 looks like OJM flew to CNS today as NZ6001, could be on its way to Townsville for an repaint into white?

zkncj wrote:

On FR24 looks like OJM flew to CNS today as NZ6001, could be on its way to Townsville for an repaint into white?

According to the above post

Mr AirNZ wrote:

NZ516 wrote:

Last original 320 going
OJM is flying today AKL to CNS NZ6002 at 1100 leaving for the last time
Then onto SIN tomorrow at 1000 same flight number

SIN for maintenance then returning. This last machine isn't done yet.

Zkpilot wrote:

My understanding is that the reporter has gotten confused. The 77W are to come back, and NZ will initially have 12 wide body aircraft scheduled to fly at any one time (with the low demand right now that doesn’t preclude having 14x 789 + 6x 77W all operational at low utilisation rates while things pick up). Remember it’s going to take a considerable amount of time to retrain pilots in particular, but also cabin crew (that is if previous cabin crew are even still available, otherwise it’ll take even longer ~1 week versus ~6 weeks that might be able to be condensed down to 5).

Something like that makes more sense IMO. A lot of pilots to train, 107 in 2022 and 120 in 2023, I am guessing some of these are for the 789 as things pick up more and flying increases, to many to just be for 6 77Ws.

Looking into the schedules the final Wellington to Whangarei and Wellington to Kerikeri flights are finishing on the 14th of December and from the 15th none are listed direct all are going via AKL. We knew they were a temporary offering plus they can get more sectors in per day running back and forth from AKL. I expect some of the locals will miss their direct link to the capital.

NZ516 wrote:

Looking into the schedules the final Wellington to Whangarei and Wellington to Kerikeri flights are finishing on the 14th of December and from the 15th none are listed direct all are going via AKL. We knew they were a temporary offering plus they can get more sectors in per day running back and forth from AKL. I expect some of the locals will miss their direct link to the capital.

Maybe an routing that 3C could pick up with an SF3? Would be little bit of an logistical challenge with most of 3C’s crew being AKL based. They probably have an little bit of room, with having 3x SF3s to make this service happen.

Would probably have to be an AKL-KKE-WLG-KKE-AKL routing.

zkncj wrote:

NZ516 wrote:

Looking into the schedules the final Wellington to Whangarei and Wellington to Kerikeri flights are finishing on the 14th of December and from the 15th none are listed direct all are going via AKL. We knew they were a temporary offering plus they can get more sectors in per day running back and forth from AKL. I expect some of the locals will miss their direct link to the capital.

Maybe an routing that 3C could pick up with an SF3? Would be little bit of an logistical challenge with most of 3C’s crew being AKL based. They probably have an little bit of room, with having 3x SF3s to make this service happen.

Would probably have to be an AKL-KKE-WLG-KKE-AKL routing.

That would lead to Air Chathams competing directly with Air NZ on AKL KKE which I can't see them doing. They mainly go for abandoned Air NZ routes. Probably an additional Dash 8 flight could be added from Welly perhaps when all are returned to service some have been out of action due to Covid.

There was talk a while back of Air NZ and Air Chathams forming a domestic code share or interline arrangement. Where passengers could connect flights and book a connecting seat on the other airline. Not sure what happened with that proposal would have been great. Some issue was the computer systems don't talk to each other or something like that.

NZ516 wrote:

There was talk a while back of Air NZ and Air Chathams forming a domestic code share or interline arrangement. Where passengers could connect flights and book a connecting seat on the other airline. Not sure what happened with that proposal would have been great. Some issue was the computer systems don't talk to each other or something like that.

From what I understand is 3C doesn't belong to IATA, and the cost of doing so out weights the benefits.

3C would probably have to go to an operated on behalf model, and NZ would have to see all of there tickets with 3C operating on there behalf.

zkncj wrote:

NZ516 wrote:

Looking into the schedules the final Wellington to Whangarei and Wellington to Kerikeri flights are finishing on the 14th of December and from the 15th none are listed direct all are going via AKL. We knew they were a temporary offering plus they can get more sectors in per day running back and forth from AKL. I expect some of the locals will miss their direct link to the capital.

Maybe an routing that 3C could pick up with an SF3? Would be little bit of an logistical challenge with most of 3C’s crew being AKL based. They probably have an little bit of room, with having 3x SF3s to make this service happen.

Would probably have to be an AKL-KKE-WLG-KKE-AKL routing.

Or, could rotate aircraft through CHT given WLG is 3 weekly.

zkncj wrote:

NZ516 wrote:

There was talk a while back of Air NZ and Air Chathams forming a domestic code share or interline arrangement. Where passengers could connect flights and book a connecting seat on the other airline. Not sure what happened with that proposal would have been great. Some issue was the computer systems don't talk to each other or something like that.

From what I understand is 3C doesn't belong to IATA, and the cost of doing so out weights the benefits.

3C would probably have to go to an operated on behalf model, and NZ would have to see all of there tickets with 3C operating on there behalf.

Air Chathams has been available through GDS for a couple of years now I from what I have seen. I believe this means they would be participating in IATA’s billing and settlement plan. They are listed as having an IATA airline designator code (3C) and an IATA accounting code (850) according to https://www.iata.org/en/publications/directories/code-search/?airline.search=3C.They are also a Hahn Air partner: https://www.hahnair.com/en/carrier/3c

Does an operator have to be a member of IATA to interline and codeshare with an IATA member? I can’t imagine Air Chathams would go to a position of having all their tickets sold by Air New Zealand.

V/F

NZ516 wrote:

There was talk a while back of Air NZ and Air Chathams forming a domestic code share or interline arrangement. Where passengers could connect flights and book a connecting seat on the other airline. Not sure what happened with that proposal would have been great. Some issue was the computer systems don't talk to each other or something like that.

When you say “there was talk”, do you mean there was A-net chatter, or were there hints dropped by NZ management that this was on the cards?

zkncj wrote:

NZ516 wrote:

Looking into the schedules the final Wellington to Whangarei and Wellington to Kerikeri flights are finishing on the 14th of December and from the 15th none are listed direct all are going via AKL. We knew they were a temporary offering plus they can get more sectors in per day running back and forth from AKL. I expect some of the locals will miss their direct link to the capital.

Maybe an routing that 3C could pick up with an SF3?

Or Sounds Air? The PC12s have the range - but costs would obviously be high.

DavidByrne wrote:

NZ516 wrote:

There was talk a while back of Air NZ and Air Chathams forming a domestic code share or interline arrangement. Where passengers could connect flights and book a connecting seat on the other airline. Not sure what happened with that proposal would have been great. Some issue was the computer systems don't talk to each other or something like that.

When you say “there was talk”, do you mean there was A-net chatter, or were there hints dropped by NZ management that this was on the cards?

I thought it was mentioned in news article by Stuff or Herald or something similar a few years back. They were saying it's a work in progress it was with Luxon's CEO time period . Craig Emery was also favourable for it to go ahead.

A Dunedin based travel agent has organised a second charter flight from Christchurch to Brisbane using a Qantas 737. This is a not for profit operation according to the agent she just wants to help stranded Australians to get home. The flights sell out within a few days. Kiwis relocating also join the flight. She is a real good Samaritan.

Full story
https://www.odt.co.nz/business/second-t ... ht-offered

planemanofnz wrote:

zkncj wrote:

NZ516 wrote:

Looking into the schedules the final Wellington to Whangarei and Wellington to Kerikeri flights are finishing on the 14th of December and from the 15th none are listed direct all are going via AKL. We knew they were a temporary offering plus they can get more sectors in per day running back and forth from AKL. I expect some of the locals will miss their direct link to the capital.

Maybe an routing that 3C could pick up with an SF3?

Or Sounds Air? The PC12s have the range - but costs would obviously be high.

NZ’s LCC style domestic fare structure, probably does make it marginal for anyone with an smaller aircraft.

You can see why they ditched the 1900D’s, which only 19 seats revenue would be rather marginal unless charging $300 Oneway as your stater fare.

planemanofnz wrote:

zkncj wrote:

NZ516 wrote:

Looking into the schedules the final Wellington to Whangarei and Wellington to Kerikeri flights are finishing on the 14th of December and from the 15th none are listed direct all are going via AKL. We knew they were a temporary offering plus they can get more sectors in per day running back and forth from AKL. I expect some of the locals will miss their direct link to the capital.

Maybe an routing that 3C could pick up with an SF3?

Or Sounds Air? The PC12s have the range - but costs would obviously be high.

The lack of toilet facilties for such a long sector would be an issue for any S8 aircraft.

Air NZ ATR72-600 ZK-MZF (msn 1691) on delivery as SXI2151 arrived HER from TLS about 13 hours ago.

https://www.flightaware.com/live/findfl ... ation=LGIR

PA515

PA515 wrote:

Air NZ ATR72-600 ZK-MZF (msn 1691) on delivery as SXI2151 arrived HER from TLS about 13 hours ago.

https://www.flightaware.com/live/findfl ... ation=LGIR

PA515

Arrives in AKL on the 15th. Routing: TLS-HER-RUH-MCT-MLE-KNO-SZB-DPS-DRW-BNE-AKL.

DavidByrne wrote:

NZ516 wrote:

There was talk a while back of Air NZ and Air Chathams forming a domestic code share or interline arrangement. Where passengers could connect flights and book a connecting seat on the other airline. Not sure what happened with that proposal would have been great. Some issue was the computer systems don't talk to each other or something like that.

When you say “there was talk”, do you mean there was A-net chatter, or were there hints dropped by NZ management that this was on the cards?

Just found this on their website so it maybe still a work in progress.

AIR CHATHAMS CONFIRMS GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

The move also provides Air Chathams with the ability to support interline air travel in the future (checking your bags
all the way through) – a much desired service provision which will be greatly welcomed by regional and international
passengers once operational.

https://www.airchathams.co.nz/library/f ... nology.pdf

Air NZ schedules now show that CHC Tasman flights have been re-introduced from Monday 17 Jan. Demand will be heavily restricted to NZ citizens only so not surprising supply of seats have to be limited as well.

CHC to SYD NZ227 0945 daily except wed, fri and sun
CHC to MEL NZ221 0920 daily except tue, thu and sat
CHC to BNE NZ201 0600 daily
No flights for OOL

NZ516 wrote:

DavidByrne wrote:

NZ516 wrote:

There was talk a while back of Air NZ and Air Chathams forming a domestic code share or interline arrangement. Where passengers could connect flights and book a connecting seat on the other airline. Not sure what happened with that proposal would have been great. Some issue was the computer systems don't talk to each other or something like that.

When you say “there was talk”, do you mean there was A-net chatter, or were there hints dropped by NZ management that this was on the cards?

Just found this on their website so it maybe still a work in progress.

AIR CHATHAMS CONFIRMS GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

The move also provides Air Chathams with the ability to support interline air travel in the future (checking your bags
all the way through) – a much desired service provision which will be greatly welcomed by regional and international
passengers once operational.

https://www.airchathams.co.nz/library/f ... nology.pdf

This allows agents to sell their product and allows them to enter interline agreements with other carriers.

It's also an extra expense. I wouldn't be surprised if this is another project put on ice due to COVID but also wonder if they'll reconsider this in a post COVID environment.

I can't imagine large numbers of passengers would be connecting to international flights from 3C services. Likewise I'm not sure how many onshore agents need to book via their GDS to be aware of 3C, then how many offshore agents are prompted to sell AKL-PPQ, AKL-WHK flights once they find them in the GDS?

I do wonder if their NLK flights played a larger part in this?

Some other small operators have things like client logins should they want to go down the path of commission or reward programs for agents.

Once upon a time, 3C was available via Carina and NZ into the GDS world.

The original Origin Air went down this path before going bust. By memory they had an agreement with QF at the time. No to say their fate was caused by this but sometimes the Minos are better off playing in the Mino sandpit. I just wonder if the extra expense of being in a GDS will be offset by higher passenger revenue?

NZ6 wrote:

NZ516 wrote:

DavidByrne wrote:

When you say “there was talk”, do you mean there was A-net chatter, or were there hints dropped by NZ management that this was on the cards?

Just found this on their website so it maybe still a work in progress.

AIR CHATHAMS CONFIRMS GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

The move also provides Air Chathams with the ability to support interline air travel in the future (checking your bags
all the way through) – a much desired service provision which will be greatly welcomed by regional and international
passengers once operational.

https://www.airchathams.co.nz/library/f ... nology.pdf

This allows agents to sell their product and allows them to enter interline agreements with other carriers.

It's also an extra expense. I wouldn't be surprised if this is another project put on ice due to COVID but also wonder if they'll reconsider this in a post COVID environment.

I can't imagine large numbers of passengers would be connecting to international flights from 3C services. Likewise I'm not sure how many onshore agents need to book via their GDS to be aware of 3C, then how many offshore agents are prompted to sell AKL-PPQ, AKL-WHK flights once they find them in the GDS?

I do wonder if their NLK flights played a larger part in this?

Some other small operators have things like client logins should they want to go down the path of commission or reward programs for agents.

Once upon a time, 3C was available via Carina and NZ into the GDS world.

The original Origin Air went down this path before going bust. By memory they had an agreement with QF at the time. No to say their fate was caused by this but sometimes the Minos are better off playing in the Mino sandpit. I just wonder if the extra expense of being in a GDS will be offset by higher passenger revenue?

Air Chathams is available on GDS and has been for some time (I would guess probably the date of that media release NZ516 posted). You can book them through numerous online travel agencies. As I said above, they are also listed with Hahn Air: https://www.hahnair.com/en/carrier/3c. They are listed as an HR-169 partner. Some detail of what that is can be read at https://www.hahnair.com/en/hr-169.

V/F

VirginFlyer wrote:

NZ6 wrote:

NZ516 wrote:

Just found this on their website so it maybe still a work in progress.

AIR CHATHAMS CONFIRMS GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM



https://www.airchathams.co.nz/library/f ... nology.pdf

This allows agents to sell their product and allows them to enter interline agreements with other carriers.

It's also an extra expense. I wouldn't be surprised if this is another project put on ice due to COVID but also wonder if they'll reconsider this in a post COVID environment.

I can't imagine large numbers of passengers would be connecting to international flights from 3C services. Likewise I'm not sure how many onshore agents need to book via their GDS to be aware of 3C, then how many offshore agents are prompted to sell AKL-PPQ, AKL-WHK flights once they find them in the GDS?

I do wonder if their NLK flights played a larger part in this?

Some other small operators have things like client logins should they want to go down the path of commission or reward programs for agents.

Once upon a time, 3C was available via Carina and NZ into the GDS world.

The original Origin Air went down this path before going bust. By memory they had an agreement with QF at the time. No to say their fate was caused by this but sometimes the Minos are better off playing in the Mino sandpit. I just wonder if the extra expense of being in a GDS will be offset by higher passenger revenue?

Air Chathams is available on GDS and has been for some time (I would guess probably the date of that media release NZ516 posted). You can book them through numerous online travel agencies. As I said above, they are also listed with Hahn Air: https://www.hahnair.com/en/carrier/3c. They are listed as an HR-169 partner. Some detail of what that is can be read at https://www.hahnair.com/en/hr-169.

V/F

I wasn't aware. I wonder how it's working out for them.

Anyone know why 3 JQ 787s where flying into AKL today? All with JQ999X flight numbers.

lowesrus wrote:

Anyone know why 3 JQ 787s where flying into AKL today? All with JQ999X flight numbers.

Freight services replacing some of the QF A330 runs to get crew hours up on the JQ 787s.

I can’t say I was aware there were 3 in a day, they were mainly doing MEL looks like BNE/SYD aswell.