In recent days I have been received a photo of Air New Zealand Aerospatiale-Alenia ATR 72-212 ZK-JSZ and this sparked off a discussion about this odd ball ATR in the Air New Zealand fleet...
ZK-JSZ was one of two ATR 72s ZK-JSZ that Origin Pacific acquired to operate services from Christchurch to Rotorua, Wellington and Queenstown on codeshare flights for Qantas. It was registered to Origin Pacific on the 2nd of August 2002 and entered service on the 5th of August.
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| ZK-JSZ with Origin Pacific at Christchurch on 16 September 2002 |
After the codeshare with Qantas ended on the 31st of March 2004 Origin Pacific used the ATRs on Auckland-Wellington services operating six flights a day between the two centres. The loss of the Qantas marked the beginning of the end of ATR operations for Origin Pacific and ultimately the airline itself.
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| In service with Air New Zealand, at Christchurch on 14 March 2005 |
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| and landing at Christchurch on 1 May 2005 |
ZK-JSZ was withdrawn from Origin Pacific service and was leased to Mount Cook Airlines for the airline's operations for Air New Zealand. It was registered to Mount Cook on the 16th of July 2004.
Mount Cook Airlines withdrew the leased ZK-JSZ from service on 31 July 2005. It was stored in Christchurch until it departed Christchurch on delivery to Toulouse, France on the 21st of January 2006.
And a big thanks to Aaron for sharing these superb photos of JSZ in Air New Zealand service
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| ATR 72 ZK-JSZ at Wellington on 22 March 2005 |
Somewhere this story has got a little screwed up at the start. JSY and JSZ primarily flew the Qantas main trunk flights between Wellington and Christchurch. They were bought specifically for that service which was a separate arrangement to the code shares on other OP services. The flights were QF flights with QF flight numbers unlike the codeshare flights to other destinations that were part of the OP network. As I recall you could not book on them through OP. Check-in iirc was with Qantas but the flights were crewed by OP. I flew on them a number of times through work. Great cabin service, better than ANZ, but the ATRs often vibrated badly in flight. OP also ran OP flights WLG-CHC in competition using J41s later used on WLG - AKL then back on the WLG-CHC sectors when the ATRs took over. QF replaced OP with B737s. Worked out bad for both with OP collapsing and Qantas pulling the plug not long afterwards.
ReplyDeleteAlthough mooted within industry circles for some time, Nelson-based Origin Pacific finally announced the acquisition of two ATR-72 aircraft. These aircraft will provide additional passenger capacity for tourist route services between Christchurch/Rotorua and Christchurch/Queenstown as well as providing extra capacity for trunk services between Wellington and Christchurch. The aircraft will operate under the airline's code share agreement with Qantas Airways. AVIATION NEWS JULY 2002.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the two ATR 72 aircraft flown by the airline are now operated exclusively on services on behalf of Qantas Airways under a codeshare arrangement between the two airlines, an agreement that is due to expire in March 2004. AEROLOG DEC 2003 (guess it refers to early-mid 2003)
Have altered the post to incorporate the early CHC-WLG flights which I misssed