This is the third post of four detailing the history of Eagle Air... The first two can be found at
and
25 years ago today it was announced that Eagle Air had become a part of the Air New Zealand group. This post details the unfolding of this part of the Eagle's history
On the 16th of
September 1988 the face of provincial air services dramatically changed with
the news that Air New Zealand had purchased a 50% holding in both Eagle Air and
Air Nelson and that it was relinquishing a number of its Friendship services to
the provinces in favour of these third level airlines. From the 31st of October
1988 Eagle Air inherited all Air New Zealand’s services from Auckland to
Kaitaia, Whangarei and Gisborne, as well as the flights between Gisborne and
Napier and some flights between Auckland and Tauranga. All these routes were to
see an increase in frequency. Kaitaia’s single Friendship flight to Auckland
was replaced by two Bandeirante flights. Whangarei went from a twice daily
Friendship service to Auckland to five Bandeirante flights. Another withdrawal
was the Gisborne-Tauranga-Auckland Friendship service leaving Tauranga with one
Air New Zealand Friendship flight to both Wellington and Auckland. To
complement the daily Friendship service between Auckland and Tauranga Eagle introduced
three Bandeirante services. Gisborne’s two Friendship services to Auckland,
including the service via Tauranga, were replaced with five direct Bandeirante
flights.
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| An expanding network... Eagle Air picked up Air New Zealand services to Whangarei, Kaitaia, Tauranga and Gisborne from 31 October 1988 |
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| An attempt to improve the colour scheme - a couple of cheat lines as seen on Bandeirante ZK-FHX at Hamilton on 11 April 1989 |
The new services required Eagle
Air to increase its Embraer Bandeirante fleet from three to five and Eagle
imported two second-hand Bandeirantes ZK-JCM (c/n 110305) and ZK-LBC (c/n
110345) from the United States. Despite the extent of the new services only
minor changes were made to Eagle’s existing network. The most obvious of the
changes was made to the Auckland-Hamilton-Palmerston North service which had
previously been Eagle Air’s main route. This service was separated with the
Auckland-Hamilton sector being primarily operated to ferry Bandeirantes to and
from the Hamilton maintenance base and Auckland which was which was now the
major hub. Meanwhile the Hamilton-Palmerston North flights operated in its own
right without being supplemented with passengers to and from Auckland. The
Hamilton-Gisborne-Napier services remained virtually unchanged as did the
Hamilton-New Plymouth service but this service was deleted from the next
timetable by the 1st of April 1990.
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A couple of looks at one of the new Bandeirantes ZK-JCM. Above, it was captured at Gisborne on 11 April 1989 still wearing its previous colour scheme. Below, at Napier on 20 January 1992 ZK-JCM is seen in the new Air New Zealand Link colour scheme.
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The initial reaction in the
provinces to the change from the pressurised Friendship to the unpressurised
Bandeirante was one of dismay. Soon, however, provincial centres realised the
advantages of a much improved frequency that was still part of the national
airline’s network and the new services began to grow. Passenger numbers
increased to such an extent that within 12 months Eagle Air was operating six
flights a day from Auckland to both Whangarei and Gisborne. With a growing
demand for flights to and from Auckland other services were pruned. For a time
the direct Hamilton-Gisborne service disappeared. The growth in business also
prompted the purchase of a sixth Bandeirante. ZK-MAS (c/n 110214) was purchased
from Mexico and it arrived in New Zealand on the 27th November 1989.
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Newly arrived Embraer Bandeirante ZK-MAS at Hamilton on 16 January 1990. This was the only aircraft to carry these stripes on the fuselage.
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Further expansion
occurred on the 23rd of April 1990 when Air New Zealand withdrew its older 100
series Fokker Friendships and relinquished its services to Whakatane and Taupo.
Both Whakatane and Taupo had a daily direct Friendship service to Auckland and
as well as a Friendship service to Wellington that operated via Wanganui. Eagle
Air inherited the services between Auckland and Taupo and Auckland and
Whakatane. Whakatane lost its southern link to Wellington with passengers
having to tranship at Auckland while Air Nelson took over the flights between
Taupo and Wellington. The new timetable saw Eagle Air’s Bandeirantes operating
three return services a day between Auckland and Whakatane and a twice daily
service between Auckland and Taupo.
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| The rather tight 18-seat Bandeirante seating configuration. This was later changed to a one each side 15-seat configuration. |
In the time following
the takeover of these Air New Zealand services Eagle moved from being a third
level airline struggling to survive against a dominant national carrier to a
regional airline aligned with the national carrier. The change, however, did
not come without casualties. The Northland Districts Aero Club had been a long
time operator of an air service between Whangarei and Auckland and by mid-1988
it was using a GAF N22 Nomad on this service. Likewise, Bell Air was operating
an excellent service between Whakatane and Auckland with a Beech 99. Both felt
the impact of the increased Eagle Air services and both aligned themselves to
Ansett’s regional operation, Tranzair. Sadly, despite the connection to Ansett,
they were not able to compete with the Eagle Air-Air New Zealand partnership
and both these air services were to disappear.
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The new look of Whakatane's air service... Bandeirante ZK-LBC at Whakatane on 22 January 1992
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Air New Zealand withdrew its last
Friendship services through Tauranga on the 17th of September 1990. The
Wellington-Tauranga sector was taken over by Air Nelson but at the same time
Eagle Air also increased its frequency between Auckland and Tauranga from three
to five flights each weekday. Eagle also established a base at Tauranga which
negated the necessity of a ferry flight from Hamilton.
By the 29th of October 1990, some
two years after taking over the first Air New Zealand services, Eagle was
operating six flights a day from Auckland to both Gisborne and Whangarei, five
flights a day to Tauranga, four flights a day to Hamilton, three flights a day
to Whakatane, two flights a day to Kaitaia and two flights a day to Taupo with
a chartered Piper Chieftain. In addition to these three flights were operated
each day between Hamilton and Palmerston North and the service between Hamilton
and Gisborne was reinstated with two flights a day. By this stage Gisborne was
Eagle’s second most important base with 16 pilots based there and light
maintenance was also carried out at night at Gisborne. Bases were also
established at Whangarei and Whakatane.
While the Gisborne-Auckland service was going
well the unpressurised Bandeirante was not considered particularly suitable for
this service. On the 4th of March 1991 Eagle Airways introduced
Fairchild-Swearingen SA227AC Metroliner III ZK-NSQ (c/n AC706) to its fleet.
This first Metroliner was leased from sister-company Air Nelson pending the
arrival of Eagle’s own Metroliners and it started operating on the
Gisborne-Auckland service. The Metroliner provided the advantage of
pressurisation, better loading capacity, range and speed, with the flight to
Auckland taking only 55 minutes in the Metroliner compared to the Bandeirante's
one hour 15 minutes. In May 1991 Eagle received two Metroliners of its own.
ZK-OAA (c/n AC546) and ZK-PBA (c/n AC547) were imported from the United States
and took over all the Auckland to Gisborne services on the 1st of June 1991. On
the same day Metroliners also inaugurated a one-month trial service between
Gisborne and Palmerston North. This left Gisborne at 9.35am Monday to Friday,
arriving at Palmerston at 10.20am. The return service departed Palmerston North
at 5.10pm and to arrive at Gisborne at 5.55pm.
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| Eagle's first Metroliner ZK-NSQ was leased from Air Nelson. It was photographed at Nelson on 17 April 1991 |
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| One of Eagle's first Metroliners... ZK-PBA at Gisborne on 22 January 1992 |
From the 21st of May 1991 the
Eagle fleet, along with the Air Nelson’s fleet was rebranded as Air New Zealand
Link and the fleet repainted in the parent company’s teal and blue colour
scheme. In a move to promote customer appeal Eagle also refurbished its
Bandeirantes with avionics upgrades and new interiors that saw the seating
being reduced from 18 to 15.
John Hambleton, Eagle’s sales and
marketing manager, when describing Eagle Air in Wings in September 1991,
considered the term "third-level" to be pejorative and
"commuter" to have too strong a business connotation. "Regional
is the extent of service, while commuter is frequency. Regional airlines take
responsibility for the old Air New Zealand regions. NAC had a special thing,
and I think it's being regained. "Eagle is here for the regions. We offer
improved frequency of service and have become important in the route
distribution. We're more flexible, with products specific to the route, and we
can focus because we're not affected by the vast numbers flying the main trunk.
We deal with the small people."
The summer schedule which came
into effect at the end of October 1991 saw Eagle Air reduce the number of
flights between Gisborne and Hamilton in favour of an additional Gisborne to
Auckland flight. At this time Eagle were operating three flights each weekday
between Gisborne and Napier to connect with Air Nelson services to and from
Wellington. These supplemented the direct flights Air Nelson operated between
Gisborne and Wellington. The Gisborne-Hamilton service was discontinued on
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays because of the lack of patronage. The average
load between Gisborne and Hamilton was only 3.5 per flight and so the Hamilton
service only operated on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Instead the aircraft was used
to operate Gisborne-Napier-Palmerston North service on Mondays, Wednesdays and
Fridays.
Another important milestone
occurred on the 1st of November 1993 when Eagle Air took over Mount Cook
Airline’s Auckland-Kerikeri service. Bandeirante ZK-MAS flew the first service
from Kerikeri on that day.
While the Bandeirantes and
Metroliners were the mainstay of Eagle services, at times Eagle also used other
aircraft. Between late 1993 and early 1995 Eagle Air chartered aircraft from
two other North Island companies to give them extra capacity.
Kiwi West Aviation was a New
Plymouth-based company which had commenced scheduled services between New
Plymouth and Hamilton and New Plymouth and Palmerston North using a Beech Queen
Air Excalibur on the 25th of January 1993. The Palmerston North-Plymouth flights
were not well supported and they ended in mid-July. The efforts of this new
airline were not lost on Eagle Air who continued to have an interest in linking
Hamilton with direct flights to other North Island regional centres. From the
1st of November 1993 Eagle Air, under the Air New Zealand Link banner,
re-introduced weekday services between Hamilton and New Plymouth, Hamilton and
Gisborne and a daily service between Hamilton and Wanganui using Kiwi West
Aviation’s Excalibur ZK-TAK and Auckland-based Menzies Aviation’s GAF N24 Nomad
ZK-ECM.
On the 1st of December 1993 Air
New Zealand bought the remaining 50% of Eagle Airways shares giving it full
ownership.
In 1994 Menzies Aviation’s Nomad
was mainly used on Eagle’s services between Auckland and Hamilton and Auckland
and Whangarei. Later Menzies Aviation replaced this aircraft with a Bandeirante
of their own which also was registered ZK-ECM. This was often used as a backup
aircraft for Eagle services.
Even with the extra capacity passenger numbers
were increasing and Eagle Air took delivery of a seventh Bandeirante, ZK-TRM
(c/n 110436), in April 1994. In August 1994 Eagle Air took delivery of two
further Metroliners, ZK-RCA (c/n AC637) and ZK-SDA (c/n AC641), both of these
being imported from the United States. This enabled Eagle to take over Air
Nelson’s flights between Gisborne and Wellington. Gisborne’s flights to
Auckland were increased to up to seven flights a day with all Gisborne’s
remaining Bandeirante services being replaced by Metroliners. This gave
Gisborne up to 266 seats a day compared with the 167 seats offered before the
withdrawal of the Friendship services.
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| The Eagle Air network circa late 1994. When did Eagle start into Rotorua??? |
Meanwhile Kiwi West Aviation took
over the running of all the services from Hamilton to Gisborne, Wanganui and
New Plymouth. To facilitate this a second Excalibur, ZK-TIK, was imported from
Australia. Both Excaliburs were painted in Air New Zealand’s teal and blue
colours but carried Kiwi West Aviation rather than Air New Zealand Link titles.
On the 29th of March 1995 one of the Excaliburs, ZK-TIK, was operating Air New
Zealand Link flight 2337, from Hamilton to New Plymouth. Shortly after take-off
the plane experienced a twin engine failure and crashed in farmland at
Ngahinapouri. Sadly, the two pilots and four passengers were killed. The
accident report indicated an error in fuel tank selection due to the two
aircraft having slightly different fuel systems. This was followed by a failure
to execute a forced landing. The Kiwi West Aviation inter-provincial services
were cancelled forthwith.
With Eagle Air now operating the
Gisborne-Wellington service there was a decreasing need for a Napier-Gisborne
service. Eagle Air had been flying the Metroliners on the route with an average
load factor of 26 per cent which equated to four or five passengers. Eagle
withdrew from the Napier-Gisborne route on the 13th of August 1995 with United
Aviation taking over the service the following day with a Piper Chieftain. At
the same time Eagle added an additional Gisborne to Auckland flight.
In November 1995 Eagle Air took
over Air Nelson’s flights between Wellington and Blenheim. This necessitated
the purchase of two more Bandeirantes, ZK-DCH (c/n 110364) and ZK-NDC (c/n
110379), both of which arrived from the United Kingdom in October 1995.
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| Bandeirante ZK-NDC at Woodbourne on 22 September 2000 |
1996 saw two big changes. The
first was the retirement of Eagle Airway's founder and general manager Malcolm
Campbell. In May 1996 when Eagle acquired two ex-Air Nelson Metroliners, ZK-NSW
(c/n AC508) and ZK-NSX (c/n AC542). This extra capacity freed up Bandeirantes
to facilitate expansion of the Wellington-Blenheim service. Daily return
services increased to 12 flights on Mondays to Thursdays with 14 flights on
Fridays! Within six months of taking over the Air New Zealand Link operation
from Air Nelson Eagle had increased the service by 40 per cent.
The acquisition of the
Metroliners also enabled Eagle to commence a new direct service between
Whakatane and Wellington on the 4th of June 1996. The Metroliner flights left
Whakatane early in the morning and returned in the early evening. During the
day this Metroliner also did a couple of Cook Strait services to Blenheim.
Further expansion from Blenheim
came on the 29th of October 1996 when Eagle introduced direct flights between
Blenheim and Auckland and Blenheim and Christchurch. The Metroliner did an early
morning Blenheim-Christchurch return service before heading north to Auckland.
The pattern was repeated in the afternoon.
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| Ex Air Nelson Metroliner ZK-NSX pulling into the gate at Christchurch on the first day of services from Blenheim on 29 October 1996 |
1996 saw Air New
Zealand introduce the Pacific Wave colour scheme though this was not carried
through to the Link Carriers until 1998. Most of the Metroliners were repainted
in the new scheme. Initially these had the 'Link' title on the tail but from
late 2000 three Metroliners had the colour scheme modified with Air New
Zealand's koru being painted on the tail and the word Link on the rear of the
fuselage. Five of the Bandeirantes were repainted in the new scheme.
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| Above, the first Eagle aircraft to appear in the new Pacific Wave colour scheme was Metroliner ZK-OAA seen here at Christchurch on 10 March 1998. This positioning of the titles and Pacific Wave on the nose was unique to ZK-OAA and ZK-PBA and it was only worn for a brief time. |
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A more normal scheme is seen below on ZK-PBA at Tauranga on 17 September 1998... the Air New Zealand titles and Pacific Wave are behind the passenger door
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| The final variation, and the most attractive, the Koru on the tail and Link titles at the rear as seen on ZK-SDA at Gisborne on 9 February 2001. |
In September 1998 Ansett New
Zealand withdrew its service to Whangarei. To help meet the demand for
additional seats Eagle increased its Whangarei services by 14 per week,
bringing the number of Bandeirante flights to Whangarei to 69 flights per week!
This compared with Air New Zealand’s previous service of 14 Friendship flights
a week. These were the halcyon days for Eagle Air. While still part of the Air
New Zealand group it was more independent and was able and willing to respond
to provincial needs.
The collapse of CityJet in
November 1999 enabled Eagle to source some additional Bandeirantes. In April
2000 the company bought four Bandeirantes. Two were added to the fleet; ZK-TZM
was reregistered ZK-CEF (c/n 110238) and ZK-TZN was reregistered ZK-VJG (c/n
110298). Both ZK-KML (c/n 110248) and ZK-TZL (c/n 110378) were withdrawn from
use and broken up for spares.
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| Both ZK-CEF and ZK-VJG (pictured) only wore the new Link colour scheme. ZK-VJG is seen at Woodbourne on 22 September 2000. |
In February 2001 it was announced
Eagle Airways would replace its Bandeirante and Metroliners with 16 new
Beechcraft 1900D 19-seat aircraft. It was also announced that Eagle would pick
up all Air Nelson’s Metroliner services, thus Eagle was to serve Wanganui,
Westport, Hokitika and Timaru as well as picking up flights between Wellington
and Taupo.
With introduction of the Beech
1900D Eagle Air was set to become Air New Zealand’s 19-seat aircraft provider
and so enter the most recent chapter of its development. The introduction of
the Beech 1900 will be subject of the last post on this history of Eagle Air.
Eagle Air's retired turboprop fleet
Embraer EMB-110P1 Bandeirante
CEF (c/n 110238)
DCH (c/n 110364)
ERU (c/n 110267)
FHX (c/n 110225)
JCM (c/n 110305)
KIP (c/n 110286)
KML (c/n 110248) Used for spares
LBC (c/n 110345)
MAS (c/n 110214)
NDC (c/n 110379)
TRM (c/n 110436)
TZL (c/n 110378) Used for spares
VJG (c/n 110298)
Fairchild-Swearingen SA227AC Metroliner III
NSQ (c/n AC706)
NSW (c/n AC508)
NSX (c/n AC542)
OAA (c/n AC546)
PBA (c/n AC547)
RCA (c/n AC637)
SDA (c/n AC641)
Mitsubishi Mu-2G
EKZ (c/n 519)
EON (c/n 513)
ESM (c/n 528)
Part 4 of this history can be found here :
http://3rdlevelnz.blogspot.co.nz/2013/10/eagle-high-flyer-link-carrier-and-its.html
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