I did wonder if Pac Blue was/is considering bring their E-Jets over to compete...
you could pick and chose what routes you decided to hit Air NZ on with the E-Jet.. take the pick of the lot instead of having to service everywhere..
My pick would be maybe AKL-PMR, CHC-PMR, and most definenly ZQN-ROT or ROT-CHC... I wasn't sure how successful Origin's TRG-CHC service was... but I heard HLZ-CHC wasn't doing too badly either with a ATR...
I suppose the question would be, if I was Pac Blue would be; how deep are my pockets, and can I fill those E170s... to 62% to break even
(for the E170)
With fuel prices these days, just constantly going up.. it would be hard to beat a Q400 in terms of fuel costs...and with us being in NZ, there is something else to consider... being a tree hugging government, emissions trading for airlines in NZ is on the horizon. (2011ish or beyond) With the Q400 burning 30% less gas and producing maybe 30% less CO2 that could be the final nail in the E Jet coffin...
P.S.. Looks like you could bring a E170 into NSN... abeit at reduced weight..
Max landing weight takes 1274 metres to land...
With fuel for 500 nm, takeoff distance is 1147 metres. That would be more than enough for NSN-AKL-Alternate... just depends how much 'profit' you want to sacrafice...
but it would look cool...