Folks,
With the very greatest of respect (believe it or not) many of you are completely missing the point.
Go back and read the interview with the Alliance CEO.
The point is to continue their Australian (and anywhere else) business under the administration of the NZ CAA, and not Australian CASA, taking advantage of the TTMRA provisions.
That is, operating in Australia on a NZ AOC, and dumping their Australian AOC, because of the quite major cost savings.
Pacific Blue ZK 737s never flew domestic sectors around Oz (unless urgent) only across Tasman/Pacific
In other words, they did any time it was convenient, commercially, and didn't need any additional CASA approval, so to do.
Tootle pip!!