Pac Blue Jungle Jet

[zkcub]

Nice looking Pac blue Jungle jet sitting at Christchurch last night and this morning...

[littlehurcules]

Think you will find that it has a VH rego

It may have something to do with


The possibility of Pacific Blue launching a new service from Invercargill is being welcomed by the region's tourism and business sectors.
On Monday the budget airline confirmed it would be bringing its new Embraer E190 jet to the city this week to "show it off".

While the company has indicated it is keen to start a service out of Invercargill, it is remaining tight-lipped on whether the jet will soon be flying southern passengers direct to Auckland and possibly Australia.

A direct Invercargill-Auckland route unlocked endless opportunities because it would open Southland up to the North Island domestic and trans-Tasman tourism markets. "With the current economic climate the domestic and Australian markets are increasingly important to us."
Pacific Blue's presence in Southland would make the region a more attractive holiday destination, she said.

Invercargill Airport chief executive Barry Bouton said on Monday the visit was a sign Pacific Blue was serious about a service to southerners.
"This plane is tailor-made to service the Invercargill-Auckland direct route and potentially to open up the trans-Tasman market with a direct service."

Southland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Richard Hay agreed things looked promising.
"They (Pacific Blue) would not be bringing such a plane down here if they weren't serious."

On Monday he told The Southland Times the Embraer would be in Invercargill tomorrow.
However, Mr Bouton said yesterday the plane has been delayed and a civic reception would be held at Invercargill Airport at 2pm on Friday

[c100driver]

Yes it is a VH machine but it is a "flypacificblue" paint job.

[littlehurcules]

Refer to http://www.pprune.org/d-g-reporting-points/363428-pacblue-e190.html

Previously discussed ...

[zkcub]

Just saying its sitting in Chch thats all.Cant see where that has been discussed before...
Pac blue use VH rego 73s from time to time is there anything stopping them doing the same with these?

[slackie]

It's on a "tour"....PacBlue media release
A SEXY NEW BRAZILIAN FLIES INTO NEW ZEALAND!

PACIFIC BLUE TAKES EMBRAER E-JET ON REGIONAL TOUR


Wednesday 6 May 2009: One of Virgin Blue Group’s newest aircraft, a 104-seat Pacific Blue branded Embraer
190 E-Jet, will touch down around New Zealand this week as part of a tour to road test the aircraft in
New Zealand, familiarise Pacific Blue staff with the jet and gauge feedback on suitability for potential operations.

Pacific Blue has been operating its 180-seat Boeing 737-800 jets on the main trunk domestic routes in New Zealand for nearly 18 months and said there remained “other tempting opportunities to introduce further competition”.

The airline’s General Manager Commercial, Adrian Hamilton-Manns, said the popular Embraer E-Jets, which have flown successfully on Virgin Blue domestic routes in Australia for two years, could be an ideal fit for international regional routes or New Zealand domestic operations.

“We’re committed to developing our New Zealand presence and this week’s E-Jet tour of the country will enable Pacific Blue to gain valuable feedback from airports as well as the tourism and business communities,“
Mr Hamilton-Manns said.

“Pacific Blue is proud that our entry to the New Zealand domestic market has at last brought real competition and driven down the cost of New Zealand domestic travel from prohibitive fare levels in years gone by. The market has changed substantially as our domestic competitor airlines have been forced to drop prices and change business models with Jetstar entering and Qantas exiting.

“However there’s still no doubt that regional domestic fares remain uncompetitive – there’s only one player in the market – so we wouldn’t rule anything out,” he added.

“The E-Jet tour is a chance for the local aviation and tourism industry to see this very popular passenger jet up close. Later we’ll be discussing possibilities and opportunities with airports, business and tourism communities.

“The E-Jet is a super aircraft, which has proven extremely popular with air travellers in many parts of the world. Right now we are enthusiastic about its operational suitability, but as always, new routes and services must in the long run be commercially feasible and sustainable, so we are also doing our homework in that regard,” he said.

The twin-engined Embraer 190 E-Jet offers a spacious two-two configuration with leather seats. The aircraft is capable of flying to all domestic and international airports in New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific currently offered on Pacific Blue’s network.

The jet arrived in Christchurch late yesterday from Pago Pago and will be on display at WellingtonAirport at around 2pm this afternoon before flying to Auckland. Tomorrow it will be visiting Hamilton and Palmerston North airports and on Friday it will touch down at Dunedin and Invercargill airports.

It'll be in HN tomorrow (Thursday 7th) from 11:45 - 1:45pm

[Bombay]

Keep your panties on. There's a lot to do before they start operating this thing domestically in NZ, if they do.

No doubt it's a great machine for the job. I'm just not sure they're the right airline for the job.

Bombay

[Dehavillanddriver]

Lowest paid 737 pilots in the western world - what a load of crap!

Even amongst many of the US carriers VB pilots are reasonably well paid.

Are they the best paid 737 pilots in the world? No not at all, but they are nowhere near the worst.

As for the E Jet - the VB pilots are right up there in comparison with carriers across the world. In the US an E170 Captain makes about 80k, an FO 25-30k

[turbantime]

Dehavillanddriver,

I think Mat was talking about Pacific Blue conditions which are vastly inferior and totally different to the Virgin Blue conditions.

No plans, at this stage anyway, for E-Jets to be under ZK regos which means flying to be crewed by VB ops. For the uninitiated, VH- regos are flown by VB and ZK- regos are flown by PB. The different paint jobs mean nothing as they're used for operational flexibility and marketing.

[Cypher]

Try HK Airlines..

Capts on about 30000 HK a month, F/O on 17500 HK..


No.. they're not the best paid in the world.. but by far they aren't the worse paid either...

PB Senior (500 hrs on type) F/O base pay is about equivalent to 4th year Air NZ F/O 737 or S/O pay.
Sure the Air NZ boys get paid better allowances and overnights.... and CPI
PB ain't no Emirates or Cathay.. and sure it's not on par with Virgin Blue.. but at least its a start... hopefully pay and conditions will improve as time goes on...

[27/09]

Not a dig directly at you Cypher but at the sentiment expressed in your post which seems to held by quite a few people.

and sure it's not on par with Virgin Blue.. but at least its a start... hopefully pay and conditions will improve as time goes on...

This is an optimistic and in my view unrealistic expectation.

Why can't they or don't they pay better from the start? If they can't or wont at that stage what's going to change in the future that means they will pay better at a later date?

For pay to improve as time goes on implies that the pay increases will be over and above what has happened at other airlines. Does this happen? In my experience it generally does not. You start of low and you stay low.

[Goat Whisperer]

VB pay -and just as importantly - conditions haven't always been so good. In 2000 they were quite similar to what PB has now. The difference is that over 9 years the pilots and their reps have worked hard to improve them.

PB pilots don't seem to realise their worth, and they won't get pay rises by charity but by hard negotiation. Firstly they have to stop drinking the management's Kool Aid.

[boardpig]

"In the US an E170 Captain makes about 80k, an FO 25-30k"

I almost laughed out loud when I read this. If these figures are true, why on EARTH would you even bother??

Sigh... It's not what it used to be, thats for sure...

[Cypher]

YouTube - So You Want to be a Regional Airline Pilot? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RayMaswju1A)

At 1:13, yes.. that $20,700 USD a year....

[littlehurcules]

So when are PacBro Pilots going to start their type ratings ?

[Mr. Hat]

Cypher, thats gold.

The queston is: Why would every single person in this situation not be applying to CX or EK?

The US would surely have to have the worst TC's for pilots of anywhere in the world.

There were some comments below the video about the passion of flying ect. Surely when you are on 17k you would be wondering if the passion is going to last you 40 years!

[oh hello deiter]

Don't really want to comment on pay etc but I think it will be good to see the E-Jets roll into provincial NZ. Will be interesting to watch Air NZ's fares to some of these destinations tumble. Costs me more to fly into New Plymouth or Napier then it does to fly to many South Pacific International destinations. The Koru have been holding these sort of places to ransom for a long time now and it will be good to see some competition. IVC to WLG on a dash or an E-Jet? hmmmm

[27/09]

As posted by Slackie.

It'll be in HN tomorrow (Thursday 7th) from 11:45 - 1:45pm

I hear it might be there at those times on the 8th as well and maybe even the 9th too so a little birdie tells me............. :E

[Little NOTAR]

Speaking of little birdies, it will now have to stay in HN for quite some time yet

[horserun]

Would be a good job, better than just going AA WN CH all day long. Shoot the odd VOR approach.

[Bombay]

The "it'll get better eventually" mentality with regards to pay and conditions is disturbing. While I don't want to wag the finger at anyone in particular, it's that kind of attitude that promotes these ridiculously low pay and conditions in the effing first place!!!

It staggers me that people are so naive as to go to a relatively new operator/airline, and think that the low pay is just a symptom of their infancy. It ain't. If the airline is worth it's salt, they'll pay market rates from the beginning.

Same goes for buying type ratings, and for that matter uniforms and sim checks! We're continuing to support this sh*t by agreeing to it and signing on the dotted line! I don't begrudge anyone wanting an opportunity (to fly a jet or whatever) but come on.

It smacks of the brand-new CPL who still thinks that flying hours is a form of payment. Flying the shiniest new jet in the sky ain't payment either. The novelty wears off rather quickly and you realise you're getting shafted, and guess what? It was all self-inflicted in the first place because you signed up!

Enough said. I'll hop off the soap box now.

Bombay

[On Guard]

What happened to it in HN?

[aero junkie]

Bird strike as it was taking off. I and a few others watched it and one guy had his video camera :ok:. As of 11am its undergoing idle and full power up tests

[DeathStar-Alpha]

haha thats funny

[footloose]

why is that funny?

[Kiwiconehead]

YouTube - PACIFIC BLUE E190 BIRDSTRIKE / ABORTED TAKE OFF - HAMILTON AIRPORT NZ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esrrsrvfuEk)

[Mr. Hat]

Did a good job.

[PBN]

Whats so funny about a bird strike DeathStar-Alpha? History would tell us that they can be quite serious.

[DeathStar-Alpha]

Now now, don't go putting words in my mouth.

It's funny that good old uncle murphy has come out to play and put the tour on the backfoot, if only for a little bit..

Yes I do no birdstrikes can be very serious, I have had far too many myself. One where we've had to make an emergency landing and found several holes in the wing. I've had 6 birds hit the windscreen alone in one flight. So yes PBN I do know that. Of course I wouldn't be saying 'thats funny' had things ended a bit more pear shaped, but it didn't everything was fine noone was hurt so we can laugh about it.

In a round about kind of way I find it a great "healer" of riding through bad situations. For example when we flew through a flock of vultures (we knew this as one had kindly left his wing in our wing!) we spent the whole night laughing at our sad little faces we made trying to duck for cover. We both knew events could easily have taken a far worse course, but it didn't and we weren't going to hold in our thoughts/emotions. We all know the score when we strap on our aircraft, incidents happen. It's more about what we learn from these and how we communicate these glitches for others to learn from aswell :)

[ZK-NSJ]

did nelson get a look in?, 4th busiest domestic airport after all,
maybe not needed on wellington flights, but auckland and christchurch would work

[Dehavillanddriver]

Nelson would only work if they extended and strengthened the runway

[Beeroclock]

Bombay..So So true... All you JStar Nz stars in your eyes people!! Be warned..Start low stay low.

Dont let them do it..How you ask?? Simple dont apply,if nobody applies they will have to make the offer better..:rolleyes:

[rescue 1]

If the airline is worth it's salt, they'll pay market rates from the beginning.

Just like real estate and share markets and even the price of a TV at Harvey Normans..."market rates" vary depending on the economic cycle and the demand.

Market rates for a SYD/ADL with Tiger is different to VB to JQ to QF. For the same reasons different airlines pitch T&C's at different rates.

[Cloud Cutter]

That video's pretty impressive - at about 0:30 you can see what looks to be a piece of metal from the right engine fired up in the air. Was it the right engine that went? Or am I seeing things?