No, Air Nelson is not low cost, it is low
fares. It's cost base hasn't changed a whole lot in the last few years.
Air NZ may have been the only SA partner to make money, but that makes a whole lot of sense if you look at the other partners. It didn't make nearly as much as the more successful airlines in the world, who, curiously, didn't get an $800-odd million handout from their governments... Air NZ should be bankrupt. In most other countries, it would be.
Air NZ may have the two types of operation under one banner, but it isn't doing either particularly well. That is because the two types of operation require quite different management structures and styles, and very different cost models.
Qantas has Jetstar, BA Go etc.
BA lost go, what, five years ago? Go no longer exists. It's part of Easyjet now.
I did say that the aircraft I returned to NZ on were doggy. That would be a 747 and a 767 then. Both were appalling - grubby, badly maintained cabins, etc.
Sure, the Airbus is nice, but it isn't on the plum international routes, is it?
You can compare NZ with other countries, because the operating imperatives of an airline don't change from one country to the next. They all use fuel, require maintenance, and so on. All of the current airline models could work in NZ, but it requires creative thinking and a bit of risk-taking. When Easyjet started up, they had no market or customer base. They proceeded to create both.
Why did I come back to NZ? Well, after 15 years of belting around Europe in various tasty aircraft, I wanted to come home. I knew that with a few jet ratings, several turboprop ratings, and ten thousand hours, the best I could expect from the likes of Air Nelson was F/O on a Metro, so I basically gave up flying to come home. I am now embarking on a new business venture.
I can't think of anything done in aviation here that is better than in Europe. I would genuinely like to know what you think we do better.
One thing I will say, is that I really hate the parochial nonsense in NZ that says a pilot who has a huge amount of experience must start right back at the bottom again. The rest of the world stopped doing that years ago. Air Nelson even want 50 hours recent NZ instrument flying experience. Why? I have been flying in and out of Heathrow, Paris, Amsterdam, to name but a few, for 16 years. But all this experience is worth nothing, you see, because NZ is mysteriously "harder" than the busiest airspace and the busiest airports in the world.
Yeah, right.