Time to take a deep breath everyone.
Lets look at the facts,
a) Ozjet as it is (was), is a marginal business case, no matter how cheep the airframe is the ever rising cost of fuel is going to hurt. Full stop. If you don’t have those 4 machines running a lot there simply is not the revenue base to support it.
b) Stodartt is a dreamer, he made his fortune, had is toys (F1, airline etc) but he is also an economic realist hence the short duration of the all business class gig and short lived other adventures
c) Someone wants a 737 AOC, lets rule out the following,
Our Airline – they have one,
Alliance – its not Fokker,
APNG – no, happily using Our,
Toll – maybe but currently using Airwork for the 737F
NFI – No Frigging Idea is about right.
Norfolk are a candidate but there is no way the NFI government will come up with the cash to buy the operation. What they want is control over a stable airservice which is the life blood of the island. Not Charter machines 5.5 time zones away and an office in Melbourne.
Having worked with Ewan Wilson before his comments come as no surprise… please see wiki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiwi_Tr...ional_Airlines
The best line is
Ewan Wilson served as CEO and was later convicted on five counts of fraud. The Securities Commission went further and banned Wilson from ever holding a Directorship or Senior Management position, stating that “Wilson’s actions as CEO of Kiwi Air were both ethically void and morally reprobate”.
I could not put it better myself, now ask yourself how or why has he schmmoozed his way into bed with Norfolkair??? NFI QED.
So in summary the best guess was simply Toll wanting a 737 AOC that they can put freighters on and have more control at their own cost basis, which is SOP for Mr Little and his Toll Group.
Toll do not want 20 year old 732’s nor adhoc pax charter and a semi commitment to a speck in the pacific they only want an AOC, so now that Head office is being thinned out, give it a bit of time and then the Toll vultures will be back they will pick up a thin operation with flight crew ready to go, already based on the East and West coast, no cabin crew, and easy to put 733F onto the AOC
Good luck everyone, your going to need it.