Passing through Christchurch yesterday afternoon I spotted Sounds Air Grand Caravan ZK-SAW which operated in VFR... I wondered if it was people coming out of Kaikoura. Pilatus PC12 ZK-PLS did the Blenheim service. Sounds Air operated two additional flights between Christchurch and Blenheim yesterday. Flights between the two centres seem to filling fast and I wonder how long it is before Sounds Air adds extra capacity to the route while SH 1 is closed.
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| My ride home to Hamilton, Bombardier Q300 ZK-NEA at Wellington on 15 November 2016 |
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| Out the windw of the plane... Sounds Air's Caravan ZK-PDM off on its next flight... |
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| ...while ZK-SAN was snapped as I walked to my gate. Photos taken at Wellington on 15 November 2016 |
Kaikoura has a sealed runway for light aircraft up to 13 seats. Does anybody know if Kaikoura runway was damaged?
ReplyDeleteSounds Air's Facebook page:
ReplyDelete"Thanks for all your support and comments - we are doing whatever we can to assist the Kaikoura region.
Since the first quake we have been in and out of the region delivering vital supplies and transporting people out of the area to be with loved ones."
There is also a picture of ZK-SAW being loaded up with supplies. They did 4 flights yesterday and 6 today.
A few light singles aren't going to even get close to covering the extra capacity required on BHE-CHC.
ReplyDeleteA far better option would be to put some ATR's on the route.
ATRs into a runway 700m long?
DeleteSA's 208s are the best machine for the job. Pity they haven't got all the screen time the choppers are getting.
Oops spoke too soon - BHE-CHC. Yes Air NZ will be ruing dropping that service!
DeleteNo NOTAMS out on NZKI and Sounds Air and others using frequently, so looks good on that front.
There is currently no spare capacity to operate this route with any Air NZ aircraft.
DeleteThe route was exited due to poor customer demand despite the larger aircraft being operated for some time.
Thousands and thousands of stimulating low entry fares well below $100 were for sale for almost a year in advance of the upguage with many services eventually flying on the day with fewer than 10 passengers.
The logical move was to exit and allow local operator SoundsAir to continue with a better sized aircraft for the demand.
That was the past there would be even more demand now with the road out. There is spare capacity not all Q300s are in use all day everyday many have long down time between turns. In the past Blenheim to Christchurch did fill 3 Beech flights per day nearly 60 passengers. Now with the road out and a long detour the only option a lot of people would choose the flight as the only reasonable option. So the demand would have more than doubled. What put off many passengers was the change of departure time from 0830 to 0610.
DeleteThe first flight from BHE to CHC was around 0700 in the Eagle days.
DeleteThe change was due to their being no overnighting Dash specifically for the CHC route in BHE, resulting in a change to a later departure time out of BHE.
To clarify again, there is currently no capacity available from Air NZ's regional fleet to operate prime time flights on this route as the domestic schedule stands.
DeleteYes there is some down time, generally no more than 1 hour currently in some ports, this is to allow flexibility in catching up lost time due to delays at major airports. Currently this is proving to work very well. But not enough time to commit to a 50 min each way sector plus ground times at each end.
Any changes to allow this to happen would likely effect several other provincial routes and could also impact on crew numbers, breaks and hours.
In saying that, the changes could be made to allow this to happen, but it would come from service cuts elsewhere.
Growth can only occur as fast as new ATR aircraft can be delivered to free up Dash 8s.
ZK-PLS did 2 return trips from BHE to CHC and SAW was flat out all day as SDA018 from/to CHC and Kaikoura. Even landed on CHC's grass runway at one stage due to the Emirates A380 needing to backtrack the main runway as it cannot taxi past the terminal building area due to insufficient clearance!
ReplyDeleteIs that right! FFS CHC go on about being equiped for 380s that's ridiculous. OTP disrupts for everyone else.
DeleteWho else is disrupted?
DeleteSpeaking from experience?
Be good to see the local operators getting a mention in the news. Good on the RNZAF for getting down there, but boy what a tremendous cost in comparison to running caravans!
ReplyDeleteI agree entirely... There has been little or no coverage of other operators such as Sounds Air... 4 NH90s moved 165 people... what numbers did other operators carry?
DeleteSounds Air have just announced two new routes both Christchurch and Blenheim to Kaikoura from their facebook page. Commences Monday 21 November 5 days a week.
ReplyDelete