25 May 2016

Whanganui next centre to get a lousy schedule


If you'll excuse the hoary pun, things are taking off at Whanganui Airport. Not so much because Air New Zealand is flying 50-seater planes through our regional hub, but rather that other things are happening or are about to happen at the airport, all aimed at underpinning the economic well-being of the facility. Allan MacGibbon, airport manager, tracks passengers going through the airport gates to board Air NZ flights. He said allowing for a 65-70 per cent loading on the 50-seater Q300 planes, which were flying up and back three times a day, about 60,000 people were using the service each year. But that scenario will change in March next year when the airline reverts to two daily flights - two out and two back. "It doesn't help because effectively it means the flights will only service the Whanganui market - those flying out of the city - rather than the Aucklanders wanting to come here for a day's business. And I'm alarmed with that call because it changes the dynamics at our airport dramatically." Mr MacGibbon said at the moment the 10am flight from Auckland was showing good passenger loadings and most of them were "suits" (business people) but the pending change would affect that. He said that was the problem the airline had with the Whanganui to Wellington service because it was only good for those flying from here to Wellington with a flight leaving in the morning and returning that night. But the other issue for the Whanganui operation was the ongoing leakage of potential customers who use Palmerston North, an airport serviced by more planes and flying to more destinations. "We're relying on these (Whanganui) flights for our income because Air NZ is our biggest customer by far in terms of landing fees. "We work as well as we can with them to make sure they get everything they need here. And they appear to be more than happy with what we're doing," Mr MacGibbon said. He said Air NZ's schedule changes reflected the competition it was responding to in other parts of the domestic market from the likes of Jetstar: "It's just that Whanganui's at the bottom of the list." But he said there were some obvious positives happening at Whanganui's airport, and one of those was the pilot training school that was to set up here before the end of the year. "The sky's the limit really in how big that becomes. It only depends on how much money you want to pour into it," Mr MacGibbon said. The school gets government funding for 14 New Zealand student pilots. The rest will be privately funded and most of those are from overseas. But it could be that more than 40 students are enrolled at any one time. "But there's potential to grow if they're looking at the international market." So while the national carrier is the biggest customer, it's not the only one. The airport is a busy place with agricultural planes, the aero club, Air Wanganui and more recently the RNZAF contributing the income. "The Air Force is using its Texan trainer aircraft for a lot of touch-and-go landings. And we've had indications from the Air Force they'll be using our airfield a lot more," he said. "They need to get their pilots into different places as they learned to fly in different environments. The King Airs fly here and the NH90s and Agusta 109 helicopters. It's very convenient for them because we're only 10 minutes away from Ohakea. "They pay the same for a touch-and-go as they would if they landed. But if they do 10 touch-and-goes, we'll only charge them as if it was one landing. That's the same as we charge others." For the airport it represented revenue but Mr MacGibbon said Whanganui's charges were in the lower quartile. "We're between a rock and a hard place. We don't want to raise charges to drive people away but equally the ratepayers shouldn't be subsidising someone's flying, so it's about striking a balance." Whanganui Airport is a busy regional airport and on a typical day racks up between 30 to 50 movements. That includes Air NZ, agricultural aircraft, the air ambulance and aero club flights. It's a 50/50 partnership between the city and the Crown, one of six left in the country working under that arrangement. While he's promoting the airport, Mr MacGibbon has been a prime mover behind the idea of an aviation network servicing the country. "We've got a roading network which everyone accepts as vital but for some unknown reason we haven't done the same for the aviation industry. But we're working to get this changed. "Whether you're a small or large airport, it essentially doesn't change what you are. It depends on the ownership model and in our case we've had outstanding support from the district council. Look at the medical flights going from here. Without Air Wanganui's service there are a lot of people who wouldn't be alive today." He said airports were often taken for granted but there was a considerable financial commitment made to the operation of the facility. Next year, for example, they would spend $250,000 on a protective sealing coat over the runway. "Whether we're going to be a major scheduled passenger airport into the future, I don't know. We're so close to Palmerston North. But in terms of driving the local economy, our airport is absolutely vital. "And I think we're going to see more third-level carriers emerge as well. Companies like Air Chathams and Sounds Air might start getting involved again in smaller centres. "But without that passenger link to Auckland especially I think this would be a different place. Whether we can sustain it into the future and whether we've got a carrier committed to providing the service is another thing. But we've proved that we can support that network. "The numbers through here are pretty good and it's convenient but I'm just a bit concerned that their plans do not include a service that suits people flying from Auckland to Whanganui. "That said, we value Air NZ and try and provide the best damn service to them that we can," Mr MacGibbon said.

Source : 

24 comments:

  1. Way to go.... Air nz will be really pleased that your counting their pax numbers and then telling the press. I am sure Airnz have done the numbers and are optimizing their $20m+ assets

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  2. Um, cannot find any reference to 2 fights a day...... Still three flights with a overnighting aircraft, right through until next I run out of calendar. Difference is the 1st flight into WAG doesn't arrive until after 10am! That's not great for business!

    Very concerning all these changes. I fly regularly to these smaller places for work, and already I am struggling with the schedule to the likes of Timaru and Hokitika. It just doesn't work!

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    1. I retract, was looking at the wrong month! Indeed... 2 flights a day, 1st arrival into WAG is not until after 2pm! Meaning any business to be done in WAG will mean a overnight, or flying to PMR... which I though is what Air NZ wanted to avoid!

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  3. Clearly AirNZ have targeted these regional flights to suit the regional connections outbound to international flights. The market is obviously too small for 'business day trips' into regional centres such as these.

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    1. Thats exactly it. I think we are naive if we think this is just something they have come up with. They have examined travel patterns and determined this is a better use of resources going forward. Business travelers will have to adapt. Technology has put paid to a lot of one day return business trips anyway. A friend of mine used to make Gold Elite each year and now that his organisation has moved to conference video calls with a marked reduction in travel for face to face meetings, he can only reach silver status each year. That's quite a reduction and I don't believe for a second his case is a one off.

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    2. I disagree... Air NZ is more focussed on international services and major domestic centres with high traffic. Traffic to these centres is growing and this is Air NZs interest and concern for competing with Jetstar. With Eagle and Air Nelson in the early days they were interested in growing the regional ports... There is a clear shift now to focussing on key ports and giving smaller ports a token service. So why support WAG when PMR is only an hour away, TIU when CHC is two hours away on a good road, TUO when ROT is an hour away. The Hokitika service and Whangarei and Kerikeri services will be considered marginal. This is I believe a clear Air NZ strategy to make flying to these smaller ports less desirable so they can be dropped.

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    3. I don't think the use of the work "token" is helpful as it is see as derogatory. In reality those airports are getting the level of service that they can support. The government does not fund the airlines to operate at a loss for a "common good" so each town pairing has to make a profit.

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    4. I stand by "token" and I meant to be derogatory. The more centralised Air NZ has become the less interested it has become in growing air services to the regions. In the end, I believe Air NZ will shoot themselves in the foot. If people are forced to drive to get a flight at a major provincial airport they may chose to fly Jetstar!

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  4. Along with Timaru and Whangarei (eventually), I can see Air NZ pulling out of Wanganui. The Q300s don't seem to have a future after 2020 in the Air NZ fleet. All three airports are smaller centre served and have a major centre airport an hour or so drive away...
    candidates for 3rd levelers to move in.

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    1. Wheres the major airport an hour away from whangarei?

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    2. I think Alec's point is that they are not interested in smaller ports

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  5. On a totally new subject...
    Will the Pacific wave livery become the longest standing colour sceme for air nz..? With the 767 staying and the busy 772 getting very little downtime for a repaint...
    Teal is currently the longest serving. It went strong from 39/40-65.. 25-26 years possibly an extra year with the dc6s
    The 742 sceme came close..? To be corrected of course..? 83-01/02 when the 732 ZK-NAA and the metro was retired or possibly 06 when the last saabs left..? Were the last saabs all painted.? 19-(23 with the saabs)
    And the Pacific wave...
    96-16 20 years and still counting.. with the 767 to be here at least till 18/19 and the 772..?
    Side note... the simple pacific wave is rivaling my favorite.. the DC 10 livery
    73-83... 10 years and the euro white teal 09- with two 767 and the remaining 773's still to be painted...
    In the tail end we had the extremely boring black tails 2-3 years 12-14/15 and the shortest is the teal/air nz titles and 1 year 65

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  6. All well and good, but the communities need to support the 3rd levelers to make it viable. Seeing as the wanganui ratepayers are funding a flying school, maybe they should also put a bit of skin in the game and support an operator like Soundsair

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  7. There seems to be an interesting pattern developing with Air NZ.

    Reading some of the above comments, they are confirming my belief, by shutting down Eagle Air, Air NZ will just concentrate on developing their own regional network to feed in to their national and international services. We all know with Jetstar operating regionally, is a major underlining factor to this change of in Air NZ direction, compared to 5 years where Air NZ was the major player and didn't like competition.

    Air NZ seems to be indicating to 2nd and 3rd operators, go and develop regional routes to destinations that we are no longer want to be involved in.

    Its going to be interesting to see what happens later this year and next year which of the 2nd and 3rd operators have twigged to what Air NZ is doing and start planning to developed new routes and services.

    The major regional players seems to be Soundsair, Barrier Air, KRA and Air Chatmans which I consider 2nd level operators and 3rd level operators are Sunair, Air2there.

    It will be interesting to see what Air Whangarei is going to do, if they are start eyeing WAG/AKL, WAG/WLG, WAG/NSN business and leisure services since Air NZ is scaling back the Q300 services. Air Whanganui are in the position to do something with these routes, as they are based in WAG.

    I don't see Air NZ pulling out of WRE but I do see them pulling out of TIM, if Air NZ doesn't replace the Q300's with ART42-600's.

    I am still of the opinion that Air NZ will replace the the Q300's with ATR42-600 or a mixture of ATR42 and ART72's

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    1. Air Whangarei and Air Whanganui? Where are these airlines?

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    2. Oops, sorry. It should be Air Wanganui (Air Whanganui) not Air Whangarei

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  8. I have seen Air Wanganui do a few charter flights to Christchurch before. They could look at serving that route on a permanent basis also.

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  9. I have been thinking, interested 2nd and 3rd level operators should sit down as a group with a finance company like UDC and a air maintenance company, to purchase say 5 or 6 surplus 1900's from Air NZ, whilst the aircraft and spares are still in country.

    Those interested 2nd/3rd level operators then enter into a dry, damp or wet lease or lease to buy the aircraft so they could develop their respective regional route networks.

    Then those operators could form their own regional carriers alliance similar to Value Alliance - the low cost carriers alliance, modeled on the main airline alliances like Star, Oneworld, etc but maintain their respective entities and brands.

    By them operating in an alliance, they can then use a standardised reservation distribution management system allowing for inter carrier reservations, negotiate as a group - check in, ground handling, apron space, etc with CHC, AKL, WLG DUD, ZQN airport companies and negotiate as a group an interline agreement with Air NZ or Jetstar, plus centralised maintenance of the 1900's.

    By doing this, makes economic sense, as 2nd/3rd level operators have low company, labour costs as oppose to Eagle Airways which, besides their own business costs, had to pay a management/marketing fee to Air NZ - the parent company.

    By forming a NZ regional carriers alliance would be a first in the South Pacific region but it would be great for regional passengers, as it would give the traveler a more cohesive regional travel experience whether it is leisure, business or tourism.

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  10. The Airoprt Authority have nade it a bad environment for an aero club. They are struggling.

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  11. The Beech 1900 is a pile of GA junk, it is not a good aircraft for the New Zealand airline operation as its reliability is poor, its costs are very high and it struggles with short sectors and high cycle operations.

    As has been demonstrated by Sounds Air the operation that these smaller regional airports need is a commuter service with aircraft the likes of the Caravan and the PC12 to connect to the larger airline centres.

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  12. I can assure you the 1900 is hardly a pice of junk, economically it is no longer viable ( nor is any 19 seat or 30 seat aircraft for that matter ), but it is the best aircraft in its category, and like the rest of the King Air family, a delight to fly.

    Despite all the bright ideas here, there will not be a resurgence of 3rd level operators, there is less than no money in it. AirNZ will reduce services to the marginal ports, with increased capacity aircraft on a reduced frequency schedule, and funnel customers to major regional ports such as PMR. We have a population of around the Sydney area, and the regional market has been over served for years by AirNZ and no where near as cost effective as it should be. If passengers in the likes of WRE,KKE,WAG don't like it, they will just have to get over it, simple as that there are not enough of them to matter. The schedule shakeup will aid passengers in the likes of GIS,PPQ,BHE with even earlier departures and later arrivals, and also in the main ports with earlier departures to KKE e.t.c.
    Just because a grand total of 2000 ( if that ) people are up in arms in selected minor regional ports doesn't change the fact the the AirNZ regional airlines need to be focused on growing the bottom line and growing frequency and capacity to major regional centres .

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    1. No economically viable 19 seat?
      Metroliner plenty economic, just cramped.

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  13. Apparently Air NZ is axing WAG/AKL from 1 Aug 16.

    see http://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/air-nz-drops-two-regional-routes-2016053017#axzz4A7Dp8d2s

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  14. Whanganui flights now canned altogther.
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/80555743/air-nz-cancels-aucklandwhanganui-christchurchblenheim-regional-flights

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