3rd Level New Zealand: August 2017

31 August 2017

Kaikoura Air Service Extended

Sounds Air have announced that they have officially extended their Blenheim - Kaikoura route until the 31st of October! Sounds Air has up to 5 flights per week on the Blenheim to Kaikoura Route.

30 August 2017

Jetstar conceding regional business traffic?

Regional travellers may have to alter their plans thanks to a change in Jetstar flight schedules that cut a number of early flights from the regions. Jetstar recently published its new regional schedule, which starts on October 29. The airline currently operates a seasonal schedule of 104 return services a week across its five regional routes. This will increase to between 107 and 114 with the new schedule, but with several of its early morning services cut. A Jetstar spokesman said the airline regularly operated seasonal schedules to match seat capacity with travel demand. "We're making some adjustments to our regional schedule to better align our flights to when our customers want to fly," he said. "Jetstar's regional network has been a success story for New Zealand travellers, bringing low fares to areas that had previously lacked competition and choice." Under the current flight schedule, Jetstar operates early morning flights between 6am and 8am out of New Plymouth, Nelson, Napier and Palmerston North. However under the incoming schedule, the earliest flight out of New Plymouth would be 11.45am. Napier would also lose its early morning flight to Auckland with customers set to arrive there at 10am instead of the current 7.35am. Nelson's 6.30am flight to Auckland would also be changed to depart at 10.15am with Palmerston North's first flight also pushed out. The spokesman said the earlier flights had been shifted to later in the day, however the airline was putting on earlier flights out of Auckland for business people travelling to the regions. "New Plymouth is more a leisure market for us so we have the mid-morning and mid-afternoon flights all week with the extra two weekend return services, on Friday and Sunday evenings," he said. "These services are targeted at weekend travellers coming to New Plymouth or locals heading to Auckland." This time last year Jetstar operated 122 return flights a week on the regional routes. That was reduced in July this year to the current seasonal schedule of 104 return flights. Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce chief executive Wayne Walford said he hoped this wouldn't impact on business travellers too much, but said Jetstar may be looking to fill a gap in the market at that time. "There are a lot of people that fly in and fly out early in the morning - I'm not sure what the numbers are but it is very busy. There's certainly a lot flying out of here," he said. "They may be trying to avoid competing directly with Air New Zealand because you see Jetstar and Air New Zealand in at the same time and going out within five minutes of each other so that direct competition may not have paid off for them." Air New Zealand operates early morning flights to and from Nelson, Napier, New Plymouth and Palmerston North during the week.

Source : http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11913894

In the Inbox

Thanks to the three photographers who sent in some pics over the last week or so...

DShutter sent this pic of Fly My Sky's BN Islander before its recent rebranding. Photo taken on Waitangi Day, 6 February 2017 at Auckland.

AgairNZ records the sad demise of Convair 580 at Auckland on 27 August 2017

Grayson caught FlyStark's Gippsland Airvan at Tauranga on 29 September 2017. I'm looking forward to the relaunch of services over the summer.

28 August 2017

Fly My Dark Sky Islander

Thanks to MRC Aviation for these photos of Fly My Sky's Dark Sky Islander, ZK-PIY taken at Auckland on 28 August 2017

A Gloomy Hamilton Day

It's stayed a fairly gloomy day today after the rain passed through Hamilton on 28 June 2017
Visiting the city is Cessna 650 Citation III N163JM

On air ambulance duties from New Plymouth was the Taranaki Air Ambulance Trust's Cessna 421 Golden Eagle ZK-TAM

In for maintenance was HeliA1's Aerospatiale Squirrel ZK-IUU

26 August 2017

Airlines and Aircraft Types...

Nothing to post so I thought I would share my flight log of airlines and aircraft types I have flown on...

It makes quite a list...

In terms of NZ airlines I have flown on the following domestic services...

Air Albatross
Air Chathams
Air Napier
Air Nelson
Air New Zealand
Air West Coast
air2there
Ansett New Zealand
Barrier Air
Bell Air
Coast Air
Coastair
Eagle Air
Flight Hauraki
Freedom Air
Golden Bay Air
Great Barrier Airlines
Jetstar
Kiwi Regional
Mount Cook
NAC
Newmans Air
Origin Pacific
Originair
Pacific Blue
Qantas
Qantas NZ
Salt Air
Soundsair
Southern Air
Sunair
Tasman Pacific
Westland Flying Services

I've flown into the following NZ airports on scheduled services

Kaitaia
Kerikeri
Whangarei
North Shore
Auckland
Hamilton
Tauranga
Whakatane
Rotorua
Taupo
Gisborne
Wairoa
Napier
New Plymouth
Whanganui
Palmerston North
Paraparaumu
Masterton
Wellington
Picton
Blenheim
Nelson
Takaka
Westport
Greymouth
Hokitika
Kaikoura
Christchurch
Timaru
Oamaru
Mount Cook
Wanaka
Queenstown
Dunedin
Invercargill

Stewart Island

Chatham Island

Pitt Island

In terms of International airlines I have flown on the following on their international or domestic services...

Aegean Airlines
Aer Arann
Air Dolomiti
Air India
Air New Zealand
Air One
Air Rarotonga
Alitalia
American
Britannia
Cathay Pacific
Central Wings
China Southern
Easyjet
El Al
Emirates
Freedom Air
Frontier
KLM
Korean
Lufthansa
Malaysian
Manx2
Qantas
Qatar
Royal Tongan
Ryanair
Singapore
SkyEurope
Sunflower
Swiss
Thai
THY-Turkish
Transavia
Turtle Airways
United Airlines
US Air
US Air Force
Virgin Australia
Virgin Express
VLM

And for aircraft types I have flown on

Aerospatiale ATR 42

Aerospatiale ATR 72 -200 -500 -600

Airbus 300

Airbus 310

Airbus 319

Airbus 320

Airbus 321

Airbus 330 -200 -300

Airbus 340 -300 -600

Airbus 380

Alpha R2160

Auster

Beech 1900 -C -D

Beech 99

Bell Jetranger

Boeing 727 -200

Boeing 737 -100 -200 -300 -400 -500 -700 -800 -900

Boeing 747 -200 -300 -400

Boeing 757

Boeing 767 -200 -300

Boeing 777 -200 -300

Boeing 787 -8

Boeing C-17

British Aerospace 146 -100 -200

British Aerospace Jetstream 3x -31 -32

British Aerospace Jetstream 41

Britten Norman Islander

Britten Norman Trislander

BRM Aero Bristell LSA

Canadair Regional Jet 700

Cessna 172

Cessna 180

Cessna 185

Cessna 206

Cessna 207

Cessna 208 Caravan

Cessna 402

Cessna 404 Titan

Convair 580

De Havilland 104 Devon

De Havilland 82 Tiger Moth

De Havilland 83 Fox Moth

De Havilland 84 Dragon

De Havilland 89 Dominee

De Havilland 90 Dragonfly

DHC-3 Otter

DHC-6 Twin Otter

DHC-7 Dash 7

DHC-8 Dash 8 -100 -300

Dornier 228

Douglas DC-3

Embraer 170

Embraer 190

Embraer 195

Embraer Bandeirante

Fairchild Metroliner II III

Fokker 100

Fokker 50

Fokker Friendship -100 -500

Gippsland Airvan

Hawker Siddeley 748

Hiller UH-12

Let 410

Lockheed Hercules

Lockheed Starlifter

McDonnell Douglas DC-10

McDonnell Douglas MD-82

Mitusubishi Mu2

NZAI Fletcher

Pilatus PC12

Pilatus Porter

Piper Pa18 Cub

Piper Pa23 Apache Aztec

Piper Pa28 140 161 181 235

Piper Pa31 Navajo Chieftain

Piper Pa32 Cherokee 6 Saratoga

Piper Pa34 Seneca

Piper Pa38 Tomahawk

Robin

Saab 340

How does your list look?

25 August 2017

Two Jetstreams picked up

Appearing on the CAA register for air2there are the two Inflite Charter BAe Jetstream 32s ZK-ECI and ZK-ECJ. Air2there operates Originair's services and so I presume they are for Originair instead of air2there. BAe Jetstream 31 ZK-JSH is also registered to air2there. ZK-ECI is already in Originair colours having been used by Originair while Air Freight (NZ) operated their services. It has been parked at Auckland for the past year. ECI flew to Nelson yesterday.

Originair is currently operating air services between Nelson and Palmerston Noth and commences operations between Nelson and New Plymouth on 29 September 2017.

Any predictions of what they might do with three Jetstreams?