Nelson-based Originair is temporarily earthbound but hopes to be flying again shortly, managing director Robert Inglis says. However, it would operate a reduced service aimed mainly at the Palmerston North-Nelson route and charter work, he said. Fairfax confirmed on Monday that the fledgling Nelson-based airline had ceased flying on Friday April 1. Originair has been operating Nelson-Palmerston North and Nelson-Wellington, and its website-advertised schedule has flights to and from both destinations on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. The website shows all Nelson-Wellington and Nelson-Palmerston North flights are "unavailable" or "fully booked" for the next two months. But it appears to be open for reservations on a restricted timetable from mid-June. Airport chief executive Rob Evans said Originair had not provided any advice about a change in its timetabling or status "but you would best get any of this information from Originair themselves". In February it emerged that the Civil Aviation Authority had placed temporary restrictions stopping Air Freight NZ Ltd from operating Originair's planes after safety concerns were raised. Using its operating certificate, Air Freight NZ had been flying two British Aerospace Jetstream 32 aircraft in Originair livery. Inglis said that without its own operating certificate, Originair was a "virtual airline" and had arranged a temporary fix using two Metroliners operated by Airwork NZ Ltd to get it through the peak season. This arrangement finished at the end of last month. He said he was expecting imminent advice from Air Freight NZ that its "one or two issues" with the CAA had been sorted out and it would begin flying for Originair again. That would allow the airline to reinstate its booking system. He couldn't say exactly when this would happen because the CAA's investigation had "nothing to do with Originair", but he understood the clearance was due any day. However, if it did not come Originair had other options. "There's at least one other party that we could operate the services with." Originair began flying the Nelson-Palmerston North route in mid-August last year, and added Nelson-Wellington in September. Inglis said the airline had received "very good support" on the Palmerston North route but the Wellington market had become more competitive with the arrival of Jetstar. In a separate development, he confirmed that an Originair charter flight to Warbirds Over Wanaka at Easter was cancelled at the last minute. This was because the Airwork operating certificate did not cover Wanaka Airport, which hadn't been known when the bookings were taken. Originair had gone to some trouble to re-book passengers on other airlines and to provide refunds for those who decided not to go, Inglis said.
I look forward to seeing Originair flying Cook Strait again soon...
While comments on this post and others are welcome could I please ask commenters not to target individuals and to bag companies unjustly or unfairly especially behind an "Anonymous" posting
Great to see this is not the end of Originair. I especially like seeing their plane livery and they seem like such a good little airline.
ReplyDeleteGo Originair!!!
With you there.
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DeleteI just can't understand why people are just so for these's idiots.
DeletePossibly because people recognise the efforts they're putting in trying to make a go of it and good on them for giving it a go. Would you prefer all their employees, suppliers, contractors and sub-contractors were unemployed? If you can do better, there's nothing stopping you from setting up your own airline! Plenty of aircraft available, good supply of staff and crew, good infrastructure etc etc. Choose your routes and show us all how to do it :)
DeleteNo - don't dream, there only good effort is to rip people off. Ha one better, if they are so good why don't you put money into it, get them going again?
DeleteI didn't say they're 'so good', you may be mis-reading things. I do think good on them for giving it a go and I hope they're back in the air soon! Time will heal your wounds :)
DeleteExactly what was said in August 2006 with origin pacific,, they never came back.
ReplyDeleteClashing personalities were mentioned back then among senior staff too
I dearly hope we see Originair return to our skies, they are a great airline. Those J32s were really swanky inside, and the paint job was really cool. A lot of people won't fly on a small plane. I personally love them, 100s of flights on the 1900D, and I recall a 3hr CHC-CHT trip on a horrible day on cramped old CIC. I loved flying Origin, easy to deal with and reasonably priced. I loved the little plastic water bottle and the jet planes. Little touches like that make it just that much more enjoyable...
ReplyDeletePutting aside all the other issues mentioned in other comments, I personally think Origin had a good formula, and I do really hope they are seek again in our skies...
Fingers crossed for Originair - Palmerston North needs this airlink back up and running again ASAP! Failing that perhaps Sounds Air could be persuaded to operate to Palmy (sorry but Paraparaumu is too far away - if I'm heading there I may as well go the whole hog and head to Wellington)
ReplyDeleteI dearly hope we see Originair return to our skies, they are a great airline. Those J32s were really swanky inside, and the paint job was really cool. A lot of people won't fly on a small plane. I personally love them, 100s of flights on the 1900D, and I recall a 3hr CHC-CHT trip on a horrible day on cramped old CIC. I loved flying Origin, easy to deal with and reasonably priced. I loved the little plastic water bottle and the jet planes. Little touches like that make it just that much more enjoyable...
ReplyDeletePutting aside all the other issues mentioned in other comments, I personally think Origin had a good formula, and I do really hope they are seen again in our skies...
Agreed, I flew with them a few times. Issues with key people and increased competition from the big australian Jetstar has realistically unfortunately sealed the reputation and longevity of this little virtual airline.
DeleteWasn't the owner once on the board of the CAA?
ReplyDeleteTherefore I cant understand the AOC issues surrounding Airwork and the cancelled charter flight to this years Wanaka Air Show.
Airwork metroliners have been used on numerous charters over the years to the Air Show,
If they are such a good airline why have they been shut down...do you really want to see them flying again?
ReplyDeleteIf they can sort out their issues to the satisfaction of the regulator, then why not? Look at the bigger picture rather than focusing your anger on one small element. Do you really want everyone unemployed??
DeleteObviously they had some BIG problems for CAA to take the action they did, and no doubt it was justified. What I find unbelievable is the owners of originair and AOC holder Airfreight are not newbies to this and to get to the stage of an AOC suspension is quite incredible