UPDATED 23 FEBRUARY 2024
Parcelair Limited, was registered on the 25th of June
2015 as a joint venture company owned by Fieldair Holdings Limited, a subisdary
of Freightways, and Airwork Holdings Limited.
The following day it was announced that the company would operate three Boeing 737-400 freighter
aircraft between Auckland, Palmerston North and Christchurch, replacing the
current five Convair freighter aircraft operated by Air Freight (NZ) for
Freightways and the Boeing 737-300 and two Fokker Friendships operated by
Airwork on NZ Post flights. The aircraft will be leased from Airwork and
operated by Parcelair.
Freightways’ Managing Director, Dean
Bracewell, announced that as express
package volumes have grown, demand for earlier positioning of freight through
the airport hubs has increased, and to sustain the current and the expected new
levels of freight required by customers, Freightways has for some time been
exploring alternative aircraft. "This new airfreight service will provide
increased airfreight carrying capacity, faster sector speeds, savings in annual
capital and operating costs and reduced carbon emissions per item of freight
carried. In addition, the new fleet will provide sufficient capacity to
accommodate the expected future growth of our Business to Business and Business
to Consumer customers."
New Zealand Post chief executive Brian
Roche said the new aircraft are faster
and will provide greater volume capacity and reliability, which is important
for New Zealand Post in a growing market for express parcels and packets. “With
more people shopping online than ever before, the demand for overnight parcel
delivery has grown and this will continue. “These aircraft will help to
future-proof our network, giving New Zealand Post the ability to support our
customers’ service requirements and meet the growing market for the next 10 to
15 years.” The new fleet will provide operational cost savings for New Zealand
Post and avoid further significant change over at least the next 10 years.
It
was announced that the 737s would be converted to freighters in the United
States and would be progressively pressed into service by May 2016.
The
first flight was operated on the 22nd of August 2016 with Boeing
737-400 freighter ZK-PAK operating as PAK71 from Auckland to Christchurch and
then to Palmerston North as PAK62. The operator callsign for Parcelair was
initially allocated as PAK however from the 5th of September 2016 this
was changed to APK with the callsign Airpak.
 |
| Parcelair Boeing 737-400 ZK-PAK at Auckland on 4 October 2020 |
The
Freightways Annual Report to the 30th of June 2017 reported that a decision
had been made in February 2017 to introduce additional airfreight capacity between
Auckland Christchurch through regularly operating an extra Boeing 737-400
aircraft and/or the chartering back of a Convair for the greater than
anticipated airfreight volume growth. The Annual report stated that “While this
additional capacity comes at a cost, due to it not being fully utilised, it is
required to ensure a sustainable premium service offer. Due diligence is under
way on permanently introducing a fourth Boeing 737-400 aircraft that will
effectively replace this additional return flight/charter for a similar cost
and provide continuity in case of maintenance or related issues to the existing
aircraft fleet.”
 |
| Parcelair Boeing 737-400 ZK-PAQ at Auckland on 17 November 2017 |
Freightways' Annual Report also reported on the move to the new purpose-built automated
air-freight facility on the south side of Runway 11/29 at Christchurch Airport.
In November 2017 the three Parcelair Boeing 737s were flying an overnight schedule as follows;
On the 3rd of July 2018 a fourth Boeing 737-400, ZK-PAU, was registered to Airwork Flight Operations Limited, but being in the ZK-PA* series can be considered part of the Parcelair fleet. It has been used on both Parcelair's domestic services and Airwork's international operations. The freight airline also regularly uses other Airwork Boeing 737 aircraft on its domestic freight flights including aircraft painted in Toll Freight colours.
In November 2017 the three Parcelair Boeing 737s were flying an overnight schedule as follows;
Mon/Tue,
Tue/Wed, Wed/Thu, Thu/Fri nights
APK72 CHC-AKL
APK75 AKL-CHC
APK76 CHC-AKL
APK79 AKL-CHC
APK71 AKL-CHC
APK62 CHC-PMR
APK63 PMR-CHC
APK64 CHC-PMR
APK56 PMR-AKL
APK73 AKL-CHC
APK74 CHC-AKL
APK77 AKL-CHC
APK78 CHC-AKL
Fri/Sat night
APK75 AKL-CHC
APK76 CHC-AKL
APK51 AKL-PMR
APK63 PMR-CHC
APK64 CHC-PMR
APK56 PMR-AKL
APK56 PMR-AKL
 |
| Parcelair Boeing 737-400 ZK-PAT at Auckland on 28 January 2017 |
 |
| Operating AIRWORK 1 to Sydney, Airwork's Boeing 737-400 ZK-PAU taxis at Auckland on 6 June 2020 |
Airwork retired one of its Boeing 737-400 freighters in May 2023. ZK-PAQ was flown from Auckland to Hamilton on the 23rd of May and has remained there ever since. Other Airwork aircraft are used to pick up PAQ's work.
Thanks Steve for your research did not know too much about Parcelair. One would think they could operate more flights some during the day to cater for demand which could help them save on the cost of adding a fourth 737.
ReplyDeleteTrouble with that is that a premium service (ie Businesses deliveries) will usually require early next day delivery. Producers of freight generally don't provide this freight until late in the afternoon or early evening. Which means that with processing and transport times factored in you don't really have any product to send on a flight during the day. If volumes continue current trends then I would expect that a 4th aircraft will be required. I believe that an additional is coming online soon for the Christmas period as well.
DeleteWhat is happening at Fieldair following withdrawal of the convairs? Are the 737's serviced at Palmerston North?
ReplyDeleteThe 737 maintenance is provided by Airwork. Guessing that is how the lease arrangement is set up. I believe that Parcel Air is really just a front office with all support provided by Airwork. Fieldair did a bit more than just service the convairs but no doubt would have been a blow for them. Also wonder how well it fits into Freightways business now.
DeleteNot a lot. Airwork got all the maintenance on 737.
DeleteAs I understand it ParcelAir is more of a front office than anything with Airwork effectively running the show. Fieldair does have a reasonable range of work but will be interesting to see how this fits into Freightways plans now that it's no longer an essential piece of the business.
DeleteThanks for the article.
ReplyDeleteOccasionally if I wake during the wee small hours I have a look at flight-radar and see these aircraft flying the country, and send a thought to the crews working these unsociable hours.
I’ve heard from a mate at NZ Post that these 734 have been, or at least were at the start, notoriously unreliable and were unserviceable quite a bit. Caused a lot of stress with late freight. They likened them to a Toyota Hiace with 500,000km on the clock.
ReplyDeleteThere have been one or two issues. Some fairly major ones as well......
DeleteI have heard that they didn't have the best reputation from when they were with Jetconnect/Qantas.
Every time a 737 breaks down a convair purrs
DeleteThey are quite bad with maintenance, some people are hoping that they'll take the 757's off the RNZAFs hands but I personally reckon they should sell the -400's and get four shiny new 737-800BCF's
DeleteI work the ramps of Parcelair and talking to the crews they have told me that B737-800s are likely coming within 1-2 years.
DeleteMy mate flys these a/c. He came from a very reputable airline and he was impressed with the gear on the machines. The weather lately hasn't helped either, fog and who wants to go into Palmy in the dead of night in the crud? Freight dog I call him. Thats aviation.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this I found the flight on flight aware while waiting for another and this was the only place I could understand what a flight was doing at this time between CHC and akl. The APK number searched to Nigeria so I assumed that wasn't right.
ReplyDelete