New UK-New Zealand Air Services Agreement announced
 

The following is a quote from the media statement just released in London:

"The UK and New Zealand today initialled a ground-breaking new aviation agreement on air services.

"The new liberalising deal removes almost all restrictions on air services between and beyond the two countries. It opens access to each country's aviation market for the other country's airlines, and applies state aids rules to ensure a level playing field for competition. It also liberalises arrangements on a wide range of further issues including marketing arrangements, ground-handling and other operational matters.

"The previous arrangements meant that flights between the UK and New Zealand were in practice limited to seven per week for each side. This and a raft of other restrictions are removed, creating the most liberal agreement of its kind.

"Aviation Minister Karen Buck MP said:

'I am delighted by this new deal, which will be good for consumers and for the aviation industry both in the UK and New Zealand, and which I hope may become a model for other future agreements. Airline passengers already benefit from liberal arrangements in Europe; this is a major step towards extending these liberal principles into our aviation relations with other countries.'

"One restriction retained for the present is a limit on the number of passengers that may be carried by airlines from New Zealand on routes between Heathrow or Gatwick and the USA. This reflects the fact that restrictions currently apply to UK airlines on this route under the current bilateral agreement with the US, pending resolution of the talks about a new transatlantic agreement between the European Community and the United States.

The UK-New Zealand deal will be put into effect as soon as internal procedures in New Zealand are completed."

For the full media statement see:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pns/displaypn.cgi?pn_id=2005_0060

With the UK now New Zealand's second biggest source of visitors after Australia, some big decisions ahead for Air New Zealand! How much for those Heathrow slots???

It has to be good news for UK and NZ carriers. Maybe BA will use the opportunity to return to NZ?

Would have thought Virgin Atlantic may take a look at this one.

I don't think it'll change much to be honest,

AKL is pretty full so not much room for other carriers and Air NZ already operate 5 flts into nLondon in a week so cant see that going up to any more that 7 as Air NZ don't have the fleet even with the new aircraft on order!

There also is no love lost between BA and Air NZ since they were shafted over landing slots at LHR in the days they operated out of LGW on a code share with BA....hence they joined the star alliance group.

x

UK / NZ Flights
 

The recent announcement re the flights between the UK & NZ is very good news, in particular for the passenger.

Two pleas / strong suggestions to Air New Zealand on this matter.

1. In the UK, commence an operation out of Manchester, that would route directly (no quickie stop at Lhr / Lgw) to a appropriate en route tech stop.
2. Stop the use of Lax or any other US airport as a tech stop. This is the one & only reason why I will not use Air New Zealand at present
3. Consider operating east about out of the UK.

What about all the money Air NZ make from Freight going thru LAX, this is a significant part of the revenue generated from that route so I somehow don't think Air NZ are going to willingly give that up when they fought hard to get it in the first place

Not giving away company secrets are we Helli-Gurl?

A little inside knowledge goes a long way ;)

x

Methinks Helli-gurl's "inside knowledge" isn't all it's cracked up to be - Air NZ has been operating daily to LHR for quite a number of years now.

Slots permitting, I think Air NZ will be seen twice daily at LHR before too much longer, say within the next 12 months.

Ralph Norris was questioned about the possible increase in Air New Zealand London services when he appeared before the New Zealand Parliament's Finance and Expenditure Committee back on 8 December 2004.

Have a look at:

http://www.clerk.parliament.govt.nz/...rairnz0304.pdf

for the transcript. See in particular pp22-24.

Mungo Trust me....Helli-Gurl is very well connected in Air NZ

Mungo, Helli-Gurl was a lot closer than you think, thanks to ETOPS we dont have the fleet to do twice a day 7 days a week via that route, the general strategy is to look at getting into Europe via the East, hence cultivating links via SIN and HKG with Lufthansa and we're buying 777's to aid us in that.

The LHR-LAX-AKL is far more lucrative to us from a frieght point of view, whereas going via the east, gives us the opportunity to tap into BA's lucrative PAX market.

Hey Ana, how's your Dad by the way? not seen him in a couple of weeks, heard you havent been well, so he's been up there seeing you....get well soon chick!

Debs
x

Maxi - Helli-Gurl may be "well connected", but it still doesn't alter the fact that Air NZ has been operating daily to LHR for years, not 5 times a week as stated by her, so please excuse me for having some reservations about depth of her "inside knowledge".

Debs - I'm not sure at what you're trying to get at by bringing ETOPS into the equation. Operating from the US West Coast to the UK and Europe presents no major ETOPS problems, in fact most of the flights across the North Atlantic these days are done by twin-engined aircraft. If you look back a few years Air NZ operated LAX-FRA-LAX with a 767-300 for a couple of weeks to cover some 744 heavy maintenance.

I accept that today Air NZ doesn't have the capacity to mount a twice daily operation to LHR - I did say it would be within the next 12 months which is, I believe, a realistic expectation, slots permitting.

I also made no comment about which way they were going to go to get there.

Going through the East has been looked at for years and has its advantages (especially after 9/11 and the subsequent US 'security' efforts) but equally has its disadvantages both operationally and commercially.

Going from the US West Coast has the afore mentioned '9/11' problems, however it seems that SFO is far more realistic and sensible in the way in which they carry out their 'security' obligations in comparison to LAX. It would also seem that the SFO Airport authorities are more than keen to help Air NZ expand its services from their airport.

So, as to which way - anyones' guess at this stage, but either way, it will happen.