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Air New Zealand has announced on it's Facebook page, "the purchase of our first next generation aircraft – the ALIA CTOL aircraft by BETA Technologies – that will take to the skies here in 2026. This aircraft will initially operate as a cargo only service in partnership with NZ Post. It’s a small but important step in a much larger journey, and cements our commitment to flying lower-emissions aircraft in Aotearoa New Zealand."
FFS...................speachess. When the PR department buys equipment.
ReplyDeleteGreenwashing at it's finest.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Some of the taxpayer funding and tax breaks will probably disappear now the Labour government has been replaced. How are Soundsair going with their electric planes? They were meant to be in service soon. No doubt they knew it would never happen and were planning to pass the hat around for some more taxpayer dollars to keep the old fleet going while advertising their virtues and planet saving aspirations. Who will they cry poor to now labour is gone? And good to see airnz wisely spending some of the taxpayers billions on a fantasy
DeleteSurely removing the disposable cups from the Koru lounges was a much better option for reducing net impacts than this piece or marketing BS?
ReplyDeleteWhat a load of BS. It'll be able to drop a parcel off and then have to recharge for 2 days.....
ReplyDeleteI can understand why Air NZ is purchasing the ALIA CTOL for evaluation and testing purposes but I would like the airline to take more interest in the Heart Aerospace ES-30 - a 30 seat regional aircraft as a preferred replacement for the Q300's which would be better than what the airline has on it current preferred electric aircraft list which doesn't include the ES-30.
ReplyDeleteAir New Zealand is simply indulging in me-too fantasy. Sounds Air is where it will be at when it comes to introducing electric air transport to NZ. I will be waiting for bookings to open so I can go for a flight as a paying passenger on one of their Heart Aerospace ES-30 airliners. And I post using my name instead of Anoymous.
ReplyDeleteRobert, I think you will be waiting a while. Go find a Mechinical engineer and get then to explain energy density to you, Then a electrical engineer to explain the infrastructure required to recharge something like that in a reasonable time.
Deletecan take 1 pilot and 4 passengers, so not much in equivalent cargo for NZ Post.
ReplyDeleteThe apparent acquisition of this aircraft by government owned and ultimately funded (several bail outs now) Air NZ is an insult to the entire industry.
ReplyDeleteIt appears a small group of staff have been tasked with this project without any practical input from those who are actually qualified and experienced. I guess this is the tail end of an extremely leftist government input to Air NZs future.
You can imagine it will be just like when Dominos delivered a pizza with a drone a few years back. Done once purely for publicity and then back to reality (using a car).
There is a good reason Sounds Air are not perusing the Heart aerospace aircraft.
1. It doesn’t exist.
2. It isn’t viable.
3. They can’t afford it if it did exist.
Oh well. More Tax payer dollars down the drain at Air Nz
Flight of fantasy for dreamers. Just a big hole to dump money into so the CEO can look woke and cool for 5 minutes. Can't wait to see how these things handle running low or out of power in-flight or if the battery self immolates at 10,000 feet... the "I told you so" brigade (which includes me) will just roll eyes and shrug.
ReplyDelete