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Air New Zealand has completed its last interregional route, and a smaller airline has swooped in to fill the void left by the national carrier.
At Air New Zealand’s annual meeting on Tuesday, President Dame Therese Walsh told shareholders that all domestic routes were back online.
However, its Hamilton-Palmerston North-Wellington service was not resumed after the Covid-19 crash in New Zealand from March to April.
An Air New Zealand spokeswoman said the last service from Hamilton to Palmerston North was on March 27.
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It resumed services to all 20 ports on its national network in June, it said.
“However, we have not resumed services on our Hamilton-Palmerston North-Wellington route due to insufficient demand for our 50-seat Q300 aircraft.”
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Air New Zealand served the Hamilton-Palmerston North route with its Bombardier Q300 aircraft.
Nelson’s operator, Originair, seized the opportunity presented by the departure of Air New Zealand and, starting October 19, will operate direct weekday service between Palmerston North and Hamilton.
Services will depart Palmerston North for Hamilton at 10:50 am and depart Hamilton for Palmerston North at 1:00 pm, Monday through Friday.
MARTIN DE RUYTER / Things
Air New Zealand has 23 Bombardier Q300s with an average age of 13 years.
Origin Air Managing Director Robert Inglis, who founded Air Nelson, which was later bought by Air New Zealand, said that Palmerston North-Hamilton was primarily a commercial market and that those customers would like daily double peak service for morning and evening.
“We are certainly planning to do that early next year,” Inglis said.
The route was an extension of the Nelson-Palmerston North service that Originair has operated since 2014, he said.
“In many ways, it is a relatively easy extension for us to go to Hamilton.”
Originair would initially serve the route with a 19-seat British Aerospace 19-seat Jetstream aircraft, but may increase the width of the aircraft to accommodate demand.
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Origin Air recently purchased a 19-seat British Aerospace Jetstream 32EP in Iceland.
“This represents a cautious start at the Hamilton–Palmerston North Route In Line With Tough Times “.
Originair had hired two additional flight crews and two check-in staff for the new route. He has also recently purchased a British Aerospace Jetstream 32EP from Iceland.
Stephen Barker / Stuff
Air New Zealand used to fly its Beech 1900D planes on the Hamilton-Palmerston North route until it phased out Eagle Airways in 2016.
Air New Zealand had previously operated the sector through its subsidiary Eagle Airways, with its 19-seat Beech aircraft.
When Air New Zealand phased out Eagle Airways in 2016, it stopped operating the route for a short time before mounting its Q300-8 aircraft.
“I just assume that that might have been a little more capacity than the necessary route,” Inglis said.
Aviation commentator Irene King said she was not surprised that Air New Zealand canceled the route.
“Interregional travel is extraordinarily complicated, so I’m not surprised he hasn’t returned,” King said.
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Independent aviation commentator Irene King says the route was not driven by inbound or outbound international travel.
The former Air New Zealand staff member has long believed that the airline needed to rationalize its fleet by recalling its Q300s and instead having all the ATRs for its turboprop fleet.
That would have resulted in the abandonment of some regions because some airports could not support aircraft larger than the Q300.
However, Covid-19 had changed the situation and Air New Zealand could not afford to buy any more new ATRs, in addition to the 27 in operation, because it had very little cash, it said.
“I don’t think they have the financial capacity to retire the fleet.”
The Q300s did not owe the airline money and were good planes for subregional routes, he said.
“I suspect they are making the decision to keep running it for as long as they can.”
He doubted that the Hamilton-Palmerston North route would have been profitable from point to point, but airlines could “split the profits four different ways.”
“I would have been making a contribution to the network, but I would have been on the sidelines.”
She thought Origin should be able to make the route work. The only area it could struggle with would be if one of its planes were on the ground due to maintenance, it said.
Some 30 years ago, Air New Zealand had several interregional routes, one of the most successful being Queenstown-Mt Cook-Christchurch, he said.
“It was a hugely profitable operation because it carried almost exclusively Japanese tourists.
“He had almost his own clientele and made an amazing contribution.”
