KiwiJet Alive and Well!?!?
 

WTF-ever!!

Kiwijet Alive And Well :hmm:

Wednesday, 25 July 2007, 12:18 pm
Press Release: kiwijet


PRESS RELEASE

July 25, 2007 Christchurch, New Zealand:

The Kiwijet Airline Company Limited is alive and well one month after our bid to acquire the Qantas Jetconnect operation was turned down. We are well enroute to developing New Zealand’s first all jet regional airline. As a result of the change we will take on a more traditional look and competitive fare structures to match all fares on competing sectors offered by the national carrier and participate with several global GDS systems and worldwide travel sites as well.




The Kiwijet difference will be obvious and the answer is simple starting with the choice of aircraft. We have selected the EMBRAER ERJ 145 regional jet to deliver a fast, sleek, comfortable and quiet jet that will take passengers to their destinations quickly and seamlessly. We are confident that our guests will appreciate the EMBRAER regional jet’s speed, comfort and reliability. Or, people can choose the existing slow, vibrating, noisy and turbulent propeller airplanes of the national carrier that most kiwis and tourists alike are intimately familiar with bouncing around in New Zealand’s skies.

The competition is so concerned with this image that they feel it is necessary to publish a 34 page booklet in the seat onboard these aircraft that praises the virtues of its new turboprops. The national airline goes on to make claims that these turboprops are fuel efficient as well. The reality is that these aircraft are 250 kph slower than the EMBRAER ERJ 145 jet keeping you in the air longer and more uncomfortable especially in inclement weather conditions using the same amount of fuel or even more depending on the winds.
We plan to initiate services with a fleet of seven regional jets to the cities of Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton, Invercargill, Nelson, Palmerston North, Tauranga and Wellington in November 2008. Our schedule has been well planned to coordinate schedules with the following airlines in Christchurch and Auckland: Qantas, Jetstar, Emirates, Japan Airlines, Korean Air, Cathay Pacific and LAN Airlines for example. Passengers will no doubt appreciate the EMBRAER regional jet’s speed and comfort offered by Kiwijet.

New Zealanders will benefit from the these aircraft as well by linking the far north to the far south in two hours or less without having to open their wallets while onboard. We will serve light snacks and complimentary beverages as well as beer and wine featuring local brewers and wineries as we had initially planned, we will even mind the kids for you too. Assigned seating with a generous frequent flier programme will allow our honored guests to accrue and redeem points with a variety of airlines and travel providers. We will offer a wide choice of options with co-branded credit cards, digitext and pre paid cards available in a wide range of outlets in New Zealand such as petrol stations, AA offices and travel agencies here and abroad. Even online check-in will be available for your convenience.


All aircraft will be based in Christchurch and log eleven hours of flight time every day. All aircraft will return to Christchurch at the end of each day allowing us to focus our efforts on maintenance and engineering activities in the overnight hours which will provide a high level of dispatch reliability. Due to the positioning of the aircraft we will offer the absolute lowest walk up fare between Christchurch and Auckland billed as the Sunrise Special CHC-AKL and the Moonlight Special AKL-CHC. Four flights will be offered each morning between CHC-AKL and each evening between AKL-CHC. These flights will be offered at $59.00 NZD inclusive of GST on a first come first served basis. All flights will make one enroute stop as well and a limited number of seats will be available everyday.

We are working diligently with the Embraer Aircraft Company’s Asia Pacific regional offices in Singapore to locate and secure the necessary aircraft and the certification of these aircraft to NZCAA Airline Standards.
Kiwijet’s financial health is good with all of our equity partners committed to the project for funding up to sixty five million US Dollars as we achieve certain benchmarks and agreements with vendors. airports, airline partners, staff and the NZCAA.

We still have a long road ahead of us to bring New Zealand’s domestic air services into the 21st century and compete effectively against a state owned airline monopoly that gives kiwis and visitors alike little or no options for fast efficient air travel in this vast and dynamic country as more and more people see New Zealand as a good value and a safe holiday & business destination.
Staff will have a vested interest in delivering a quality product by enjoying the benefits of revenue sharing on a quarterly basis. All Christchurch ground staff will also serve as cabin staff giving us a high level of productivity with the best care in the air.
A series of media events are now planned for November 2007 in Christchurch and Auckland to highlight our planned operations and introduce key management personnel and overall progress in this exciting project.

Sounds good on paper.

But the question is will it get off the ground? If so it would be good and make Air NZ improve their service on board.

Ground crew are cabin crew, geez suprised JQ hasnt thought of that one :eek:

They certainly write up well! Interesting that QN didn't make the list of destinations... I would have thought that one place they would be keen to have access to. Speaking of which... operationally, how would the ERJ go in a place like QN? Anyone out there with any info?

ERJ-145 field perf
 

From Embraer's website for the standar tanks 145:

Take Off Field Length, ISA, SL, MTOW7, 2,270m :eek:
Take Off Field Length, ISA, SL, TOW for 400nm 1,380m
Landing Field Length, SL, MLW 1,400m

Now would it ever go out of QN @ MTOW?:confused:

So all aircraft return to ChCh for night maintennance?

Too bad if Chch is fogged out in the morning......

Quote nzmarty..."Too bad if Chch is fogged out in the morning"

......nzmarty,would agree with you,little strange to put all your eggs in one basket,especially in CHCH...but the "plan" looks good on paper....

...mind you ,if everyone plus the Aircraft are CAT 3 A/B Qualified and T/O mins are 300ft RVR(120m) then everything should be ticketyboo!!

Tried to find out the # of days chch is fogged-in(no luck) but they surely took this into account??

previous post mentioned performance #,s........these are also not a cheap A/C to operate.....load factor breakevens(from info I have heard are on the high side)....but then again ...they surely took this into account

Take Off Field Length, ISA, SL, MTOW7, 2,270m
 

I wouldn't worry about taking the ERJ145 into ZQN, those takeoff numbers means that AKL and CHC will be the only fields it can operate at Max payload.

I checked with a pilot friend flying P1 on the ERJ145 and he confirmed those numbers so this operation is going to be very limited with where they can go in NZ.

The reason for ERJ's is that they are cheap because they are not cost effective on short run operations.

Only AKL has the capability of Cat2 (as of 02 Aug 07) or 3 (sometime 2008), and when operating at Cat2 movements are limited to 6 per hour until ground radar is available (2009). International Widebody operations will have absolute priority for low viz operations.

How would a new LCC better Air NZ service?
 

By actually giving some for a start?!

Being an LCC, nothing will be given away on board. It will pay as you go for anything/everything you might want to eat/drink. :ouch:

Quote..."The reason for ERJ's is that they are cheap because they are not cost effective on short run operations"

Curious as to what you mean by "cheap".....fuel/lease/pilot/crew...costs.....and by "cheap" are you comparing it to DASH...737 320????......

We use the 145,s(plus other models of ERJ) on short runs to supplement our main carrier,because they have become economical(not cheap) on the short runs as the load factors are such that a 70-90 pax aircraft does the job......but the costs to run them are compable to some of the mainline fleet(73,s 319/320,s) and the only thing really "cheap" on the ERJ....is what they pays their crews

Not trying to shoot holes in your post,trying to figure out your "cheap" theory

ooooh cheap? I might send them my CV - Im SURE i'd breeze in. :E

Deffinitly wont get in/out of Nelson

Embraer Maintenance
 

Whos' going to do it?? Hanger CHC???

For real?
 

Can anybody provide any evidence that these guys are actually serious? All I can find is a number of blustery statements in the media making all sorts of evolving claims and an extremely 1/2 assed website featuring a jet made of kiwi fruit and a potted history of NZ all of 500 words long(please no jokes from you Aussie`s with your 600 word history). Some one please assure me that this is not some chronic yankee bull****ters mischief.

JohnnyK,

Well its hard to tell at this stage but if we are to believe the media statements they are serious about starting up, they are talking to leasing companys etc about aquiring jets so i guess they might be serious. Early september is when they are launching the website so guess we will know more then. I know for a fact the Dunedin airport CEO is in discussions with airlines about services to the city as a family friend knows him but he wouldnt say which airlines, just been to Sydney so guess it may have been QF/JQ and ever Pac Blue.

Personally it will be a good thing for the NZ aviation market, there really is only one airline operating, Qantas is there but doenst fly to the regional airports like DUD, INV etc etc which all have customers wanting to go to other citys and connect to international flights. Air NZ has a monopoly on regional routes and would be good to see some competition to bring prices down and it'd be great for pilots as well, more jobs :)

We will have to wait and see but as everyones said, good on paper but in reality............?

Lets hope so.
 

Agreed. Would be great to see some genuine deep pocketed competition in NZ. Can only be healthy for the paying public. Be interesting to see whats on offer for the drivers eh.

They are being smart choosing CHC base as this has always been popular for pilots. I would say they will get a lot of prop drivers wanting a jet with CHC base.

Fog- depends what time they get in as you will usually get in at night to a certain time when it thickens. Then getting a/c out in the mornings not so much of a prob with reduced vis approval.

However can someone confirm this is only a 50 seat a/c that seems to have running costs similar to a 737 and has performance issues below 2000m. That is the jist I got off the net and if so this seems a really bad choice of a/c for NZ???

OG

So they say the a/c are 250kts faster than a turboprop and will be logging 11 hours a day flying regional routes. Just how short will your turnarounds be and how many secotors do you intend to fly people?
Is all the infrastructure cost going to be worth it when considering the size of the towns you will be servicing?
Good luck but I think you have an uphill battle ahead.

flyby.. sorry to be picky but it said 250 kph not 250 kts.

Even eleven hours flight time per a/c at 250kph faster is impressive.
Thats a TAS of 395kts (assuming 260kt tas of turbo prop).
make it an average of 350kts to account for the climb and thats 3850nm per a/c per day.
If they did 12 sectors in a day that gives and average sector distance of 320 nm.
Would it be possible to do 12 sectors in a day in NZ with an average sector length of 320nm? Operating out of places like tg and ns etc I would have thought the average sector length to be shorter. they would have to operate from six am til midnight to do 12 54 minute sectors with 30min turn arounds........assuming the load sheet is on time of course:)

Tauranga?
 

They mention NZTG.

Now a jet service to Wellington, or Christchurch would be interesting!

Origin Pacific tried TG-CH direct with a J41 and in the very short time they were there, managed an average load of 18 pax. Not bad, but not enough for a 45 seat jet!

The yank's a bit doge aint he? Do a google!!