I had to leave my function in Auckland on Thursday to do an airport drop off. On the plus side it meant I could have a few minutes to check out the Air Chathams stand... lots of planes not easy to photograph... All photos taken at Auckland on 25 July 2019.
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| The mainstay of the Chatham Island service, Convair 580 ZK-CIB |
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| Operating flight 3C 591 to the Chatham Islands was Convair 580 ZK-CIE... Passengers were passed from the terminal to the hard stand adjacent the Air Chathams hangar. |
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| ATR 72-500 ZK-MCO waiting its next flight to Whanganui. |
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| The changing of the guards - will the ATR become the Convair replacement??? |
I read somewhere, that Air Chathams was buying another ATR72-500 from Air NZ and that Air NZ will be doing the servicing. Is this correct?
ReplyDeleteAir Chathams went to the trouble when they announced the arrival of MCO into their fleet of formally stating that it would not be used on the Chathams or Norfolk routes. Suspect range is the issue - on both routes huge amounts of extra fuel needs to be carried because of the viable alternates if they can't land are a long, long way (back to NZ and Lord Howe resp).
ReplyDeleteThe ATR72 is a stretch of the ATR42 with more powerful engines but same tankage = shorter range. Common to all stretches of modern aircraft - its the same with the Dash 8, all the Boeing and Airbus jets. The shorter the fuselage the greater the range. And in the ATR72's case it is also slower than the CV580s which means longer flights and even more fuel .... Also I am unaware of there being a Combi version which would be needed for Chathams at least.
That said I can see them buying one more to complete the replacement of the two Convairs in the internal charter role plus maybe Whanganui and/or Kapiti peak time flights (the latter assumes they ever get their head around that market and stop copying Air NZ's mistakes).
ATR can do Norfolk and chats once it has HF radio sets installed no problem. Canadian operator have a suitable combi mod available.
DeleteAlso - there are ETOPS/ETOD rules to comply with operating the ATR to Norfolk/Chathams. Not insurmountable, but ETOPS still applies
DeleteThey could do a few ATR 42s. 50 seats is the average capacity and it would be better for smaller airports
DeleteParaparaumu Airport is too short for ATR72. Only good for Q300.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it they say about The ATR?
Pilots nightmare but accountants wet dream !!
You can operate an ATR into PPQ, just weight limited, that's all
DeleteNot a nightmare at all.
DeleteHave you ever flown one?