Air New Zealand flights between Blenheim and Christchurch could be back on the cards after the Government announced it was planning talks with the airline. The office for Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce said on Wednesday the minister would discuss post-earthquake routes with Air New Zealand. "The minister intends to talk to both Sounds Air and Air New Zealand about routes between Christchurch, Kaikoura and Marlborough." Sounds Air is currently the only airline flying Blenheim to Christchurch and Blenheim to Kaikoura routes, with Air New Zealand ending its Blenheim to Christchurch route in July due to lack of passenger demand. An Air NZ spokeswoman said on Wednesday the company had no plans to reinstate the route. However, this was before Joyce revealed his plans to have a sit-down with the airline. Air NZ did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday. Sounds Air managing director Andrew Crawford said the company was meeting demand in and out of Marlborough, running 30 extra flights since the earthquake last week. He did not know how much longer the extra flights would run for. "We're looking at adding another Blenheim to Christchurch one during the day," he said. The Sounds Air route from Blenheim to Kaikoura would not be permanent, but Crawford could see it there for quite a while because of the closure of State Highway 1 following the 7.8 magnitude earthquake on November 14. "We've got the capacity to keep running as long as required," Crawford said. Crawford said exactly how many passengers had been flown out of Marlborough was confidential, but it was "well in the hundreds". Destination Marlborough general manager Tracy Johnston said she was in talks with transport providers about getting people in and out of the Marlborough region. She declined to say if any arrangements had been put in place. Air NZ's rival Jetstar added four regional destinations in the past year; Napier, Nelson, New Plymouth and Palmerston North. A Jetstar representative could not be reached for comment.
What a stupid thing to say even mentioning Jetstar.
ReplyDeleteThe Dash8 operation does not currently fly to either CHC or BHE. Substantial changes would need to occur to make that a reality.
Couldn't agree more. Jetstar's business model is on scheduled services with high capacity. They have not once done any unscheduled or charter services in NZ and they won't start for Blenheim.
DeleteJetstar actually have a spare Q300 as they only use 4 to cover their existing schedules to/from Auckland. So potentially they could deploy it to a new route of their choice.
ReplyDeleteJarden - the fifth "spare" one covers maintenance down time on the other four. These aircraft are doing about 9 hours flight time a day generally, so little things break often and the spare aircraft is essentially in the rotation with the other four.
DeleteCorrect, and even with one spare this has proven to not be enough on several occasions. Jetstar are not the white knights people here are hailing them to be. It was a PR move at low risk using ageing idle assets that otherwise would've been stored or sold off. Nothing more, nothing less.
DeleteQantas Group dropped regional New Zealand after it abandoned its agreement at short notice with Origin Pacific, its token rundown Jetconnect mainline network morphed into Jetstar.
If they really cared about regional New Zealand they would've set up a full network of their own after Tasman Pacific went bad or continued with Origin Pacific.
Estimates from organisations within the industry currently put JQ regional losses at north of one million a month. They might be helping increase cashflow in the regions with extra travelers but the airline itself is still trying to establish market share and is yet to get anywhere near a break even point.
DeleteHopefully the locals continue supporting Sounds Air and Joyce puts some thought in to his statement. Why force Airnz to operate at a loss on proven marginal routes while delivering a kick in the teeth to a small operator that's meeting demand with exceptional service?? NZ Government supporting small businesses. Well done joyce.
ReplyDeleteI agree with these comments.
ReplyDeleteI agree with these comments.
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