Some Thoughts on the New Air Services - Part 1

The three replacement air services following the Air New Zealand withdrawal from Kaitaia, Whakatane and Westport have been announced. There has been a lot of comment written about them on this blog and as I’ve read the comments I have thought some really good points were made. So this is my commentary on what I think of the new services.

But first of all… how good is current the Air New Zealand service to the three centres?

Air New Zealand’s service to Whakatane to Auckland was excellent with four weekday flights to the City of Sails each day… However, if someone wanted to fly to Wellington or vice versa they had to fly via Auckland which meant a 40 minute flight on top of the flight between Wellington and Auckland with transit time in Auckland. So the question becomes whether passengers choose to fly out of Whakatane or drive the one hour to Rotorua and get a cheaper direct flight.

Westport and Kaitaia have up to two twice daily weekday flights to Wellington and Auckland respectively. Unlike most other provincial services the aircraft did not overnight at either Kaitaia or Westport. This meant the flights leave for Westport after the arrival in Wellington of the first flight from Auckland and a number of other provincial cities so it is good for people heading to Westport. However, the northbound service leaves Westport too late for Buller business people to do a full day in the capital or other centres. The reverse is also true in the afternoons, the service is ideal for business people from outside of the region but not so good for the Buller business people returning home. This same pattern is operated for flights to and from Kaitaia, with flights suiting people heading for Kaitaia for the day but not so convenient for Kaitaia people heading to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch for a day’s business.

So what of the new services?

Kaitaia – Great Barrier Airlines has been chosen as the new air service provider to Kaitaia. Great Barrier Airlines is no stranger to Kaitaia. In 1985 they introduced an Auckland-Kaitaia service (see http://3rdlevelnz.blogspot.co.nz/2012/01/barrier-connection-great-barrier.html) and they have for some years been operating a Whangarei-Kaitaia service for the District Health Board. GBA are going to operate a Cessna Grand Caravan on the route with 3 flights each weekday and 2 flights each way on the weekend. A Grand Caravan, in my opinion, is a good fit for the Kaitaia service. Sounds Air have proved them a stable and solid workhorse for their Cook Strait services. Being a single pilot and single engine operation will help the economics of the service and GBA have announced that they will offer a flat fare of $180 picking up the Sounds Air model of a flat reasonable fare. GBA will also be able to use the Caravan on its Great Barrier Island services which will keep its usage up and one imagines the Piper Cheiftains would also be a good substitute on the Kaitaia run if needed and certainly until the second Caravan arrives. BUT, the biggest problem I see with the GBA service is the timetable. GBA intend to base the Caravan at Auckland and that means a 6.00am flight from Auckland to Kaitaia. So, no morning connections from any centre south of Wellington and who wants to arrive in Kaitaia about 7.00am for a 9.00am meeting? I think GBA need to rethink their schedule and have the aircraft overnight at Kaitaia. It could then do a 6.30-7.00am departure to Auckland and then return to Kaitaia after the arrival of the first Air NZ/Jetstar flights from Wellington and Christchurch. Then a flight back to Auckland could leave Kaitaia about 9.30-10.00am. This would give the advantage of connecting to the cheaper post-rush hour flights to all destinations south of Auckland on either Jetstar or Air New Zealand. It could also mean the Caravan was available for maintenance or Great Barrier Island flights during the day. In the afternoon the reverse would be flown. I also wonder about the viability of a late Saturday afternoon service and early morning Sunday service unless GBA promote trips to Cape Reinga.

Whakatane – Air Chathams has been chosen as the Whakatane air service provider. Whakatane is the big loser in terms of Air New Zealand’s withdrawal. It currently has four weekday flights a day. While not providing the same frequency as Air NZ the Air Chathams proposal sees an aircraft based at Whakatane and it offers weekday flights departing Whakatane at 7.15am and 4.45pm with return flights departing Auckland at 8.45am and 6.15pm. Two return services will operate on Saturdays and Sundays. Air Chathams will use either a 50-seat Convair 580 or 18-seat Metroliner on the service. Thrifty fares are offered at $89 one-way, saver fares at $149 and economy at $339. There are two questions I have about the proposal. The first is the size of the aircraft… Is the Convair too big? I know it can be substituted with a Metroliner but I wonder if it is time for Air Chats to look at getting a Saab 340 or a Embraer Brasilia. The other comment that I would make is the economy fare IS way too big! That won’t attract the numbers and in the end empty seats don’t pay! Nonetheless I think Air Chathams will be a good fit for Whakatane and I am sure Craig and team will make it work as they have already done on the Chathams service and in Tonga.

For bookings see http://www.airchathams.co.nz/whakatane.html

Westport – Sounds Air has provided an innovative solution to Westport’s need for a new air service with its purchase of a Pilatus PC-12. Sounds Air will operate 12 return weekday flights to Wellington plus a return service on Sundays. The PC-12, which will be based at Westport, is a high performance single-engine aircraft, single-pilot aircraft.  It has seating for 9 passengers and keeping with the Sounds Air formula there is a set reasonably priced air fare of $199 each way. There are a couple of questions I have about the PC-12 option that have been raised in a couple comments on earlier posts. The PC12 is going to be on the ground at Westport (Tuesday-Thursday) and weekends. As the first comment said, “To get a return on the capital cost the machine is going to have to do a lot more work than that! Not a lot of charter work at Westport!” Another commenter wrote “The problem with the PC12 and Westport is, Westport is not so much of a residential town like Blenheim. When the mines are running well, it’s far more of a mining town as in people are only there to work in the mines. Trouble is, it is international practice for these big outfits like Bathurst, Solid Energy etc not to have employees travel on single engine, single pilot aircraft. So what they're doing with this choice of plane is effectively striking off a good 60%+ of their potential customers flying in and out of Westport.” The first of these comments is certainly true and I suspect the second holds a certain amount of truth. Nonetheless I think Sounds Air have developed a good formula and they are shrewd operators so I think such factors will have been taken into account.

To be continued...