MRC Aviation is in home country at present and he has sent in these stunning pics of Air Nelson Bombardier Q300 operations into Hokitika. The national carrier is currently operating two flights a day between Christchurch and Hokitika...
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| ZK-NEK operating the morning CHC-HKK-CHC service on Monday 11 July 2016 |
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| The following morning, 12 July 2016, ZK-NFB was operating the morning service... |
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| while ZK-NFI operated the afternoon service |
Loads in 20's most days with exception to peak days a little busier.
ReplyDeleteNot a great schedule
ReplyDeleteNo spare capacity to allow for schedule changes.
DeleteThey've got to support what they've got for now and work collaboratively for a better schedule in 2017.
Q300 livery changes expected to continue consecutively from August, also one frame is always consecutively in heavy maintenance means a 21 aircraft fleet for sometime and 3 more eagle routes yet to be taken over during August.
Things are tight.
Additional capacity for the 3 remaining eagle routes will likely be scraped together with the exit of WAG-AKL and BHE-CHC plus swapping in ATRs onto existing Q3 routes.
DeleteYes more ATRS are on the CHC - NPL runs instead of the Q300 for instance
DeleteAlso.. HKK cannot sustain an alternative schedule.
DeleteAn overnight aircraft would mean 50 seats out, 50 seats in then 50 seats out... All before 10am. The demand for 100 seats out is not even close to reality just yet.
Then the afternoon/evening would be 50 in, 50 out, 50 in... Dreaming.
I agree BUT there are a lot of people who drive to CHC to catch a flight to WLG... I would have loved Air NZ to try an early morning HKK-WLG to see what demand there was
DeleteThose who chose to fly to WLG via CHC are usually less than 10 on most Dash 8 flights from and to HKK.
DeleteEagle was going to do it, until the GFC hit
DeleteTwo more ATRs are coming soon MVM & MVN that will help the network with extra capacity when Q300s are out of action.
ReplyDeleteFares have never been cheaper to get to and from the west coast.
ReplyDeleteAweosme fast, often scenic flight just 30 min.
Keep on supporting it and more flights will follow.