Business as usual
 

Interesting and a little bit of recent history. Air NZ had announced, with some fanfare, a reasonable profit and then shortly after that announced that they were cutting services to the reigions. They said it was because the routes were unprofitable.
Fair enough, but as an entire group our "national airline" had made a profit and the regions of NZ also had a reasonable service, albeit a monopoly one. So much for being the National airline.

So the regions, those who had also helped bail our Air NZ when they went down the gurgler over the Ansett saga, got screwed. But hey thats business...

Looks like the Aussies with deep pockets have spotted an opportunity and are going to enter the NZ regional market. That's business and may the best airline win.

Lots of good things happening here, jobs for some Kiwi boys, jobs for some expat kiwi boys and a fair deal for Joe blogs kiwi traveller.

Also it appears that a few Aussie chests are puffed out at the opportunity to come and show some grass skirt wearers how to fly Dash 8's in their own country. Bearing in mind that the Dash 8 has been in NZ almost continuously since the mid 80's, this will serve to enlight our Australian friends, that OCTA is really class G airspace, Aotearoa is actually quite descriptive, there is icing and that the hills around Cairns and Hobart are just that, Hills.

Good for everyone.

Jetstar base locations.? and won't there be an over supply of turbo props in NZ?
 

sounds good i think .. any real competition can only be a good thing and they have some pockets to fund it.. Would be great if they had a base in a nice sunny town like Nelson/Napier/Gissy..tauranga etc i think many pilots and crews would appreciate living in such towns where rents and houses are more affordable they would do well with happy crews, a bit of surf and sun.. and much better lifestyles than living in other main cites such as AKL/CHCH where know one on a turbo prop wage can afford decent housing these days!.. Jetstar could probably negotiate better terms to base aircraft in a smaller town than leaving them on the tarmac in AKL too? .. on another note..

In Paris this week Mt cook placed more orders on the ATR 600 so within a couple of years will have about 25 ATRs...
Air Nelson have about 23 dash 8's..., maybe kiwi regional will have 3/4 saab 340's?
with eagle phasing out, and jet stars 5 dash 8's + the odd Convair/metro operating with air Chathams, i reckon there will be around 60+ turbo prop aircraft with 50 or more seats operating scheduled regular public transport flights in NZ within 2-3 years..is it sustainable? or will this end in someone once again being squeezed out undercut and going belly up to the shock and surprise of many?

Bahhh humbug, give it a few years of predatory AirNZ pricing to kill off the competition, then all will return to normal, cookie time cookie or kumura chups anyone?

Well that's better than a race to the bottom price ending in a smoking hole in the ground. Let's hope sense prevails and it's all well financed.

We may see Peter Vincent back in the Dash 8.

Onya Jetstar....!

More Props, More jobs :ok:

At least if you screw up a Recruit To Group interview, it doesn't have to mean self imposed exile out of NZ to get further ahead in your career. And thats gotta be a good thing.

Who knows, 5 Q300 might just be the start of it. Sure they'll cherry pick. Add a Jetstar AKL-LAX flight with the A330/787 into the mix and it might be a winner. Hell, why not even entertain the idea of the 19 seat market that Air NZ just vacated. That would give the Koru the $hit$.....

Be careful what you wish for..!
 

Stranded Jetstar passengers on move

http://media.nzherald.co.nz/webconte...R1_620x310.jpg

Frustrated Jetstar passengers left stranded after their flight to Queenstown was detoured are once again en route to their original destination by coach.
The passengers had been left stranded in Christchurch after their flight from Auckland was detoured. They then endured a lengthy coach ride that was forced to return to Christchurch as roads closed due to bad weather.
After starting out with 120 passengers, only 40 were now on their way to Queenstown by coach for a second time, traveller Nicola Murphy said.
"From 120 yesterday, it's now turned to 40 so I don't know what's happened to everybody else."
Some passengers had opted to give up entirely on Jetstar and pay for flights with Air New Zealand, she said.
Ms Murphy said her and the other remaining passengers had been on the road since 9am and were in the "middle of nowhere". She said they had not heard anything from Jetstar throughout the whole journey.

"I've got no idea what's happening with Jetstar, but they've made no contact with anyone," she said.
Following the first failed coach trip, the company put the stranded passengers in a Christchurch hotel overnight, while some stayed in Timaru.
The passengers were on flight JQ279 from Auckland yesterday morning.
Ms Murphy said when she finally arrived in Queenstown she would try and enjoy what was left of her holiday before flying out on Monday. The trip had ended up taking her two days, rather than two hours.
Jetstar could not be reached for further comment, but a spokesman said earlier today they would be "keeping in touch" with affected passengers.

I gather ANZ would have got them to QN in those conditions.:confused:

not so much that as the passenger handling considerations

with jetstar no longer doing chc-zqn, chc is about as far from zqn as you can get in their network. back to akl may have been better options for the passengers. atleast the bus ride from dud would've been shorter.

i think the jq279 aircraft goes back to akl anyway, so considering the flying for the rest of the day, akl may have been a better option. and most of the passengers would be no worse off back where they started.

still, not knowing the wx forecasts/other considerations etc on the day so a bit harsh to hindsight the crew involved.

Quite often with a full load and a wet runway expected in ZQN you CAN'T carry enough fuel for the return to AKL due landing wieght considerations. Your options are CHC, DUD and INV. On that day only CHC was available. I don't see what this story proves, every airline gets caught be the weather every now and then, see the Air NZ story from last year.

Trapped passengers want investigation into 'nightmare' journey - National News | TVNZ

Certainly don't fault the tech crew with the issue of people being dropped in CHC, that is down to SOPs, runway issue with ZQN and local weather.

But unfortunately for the passengers, once they are off the flight, Jetstar appeared to drop the ball. But it has happened in the past with Air NZ getting road travel stuffed up with people stuck in busses when roads were closed unexpectedly. It does appear in NZ that Jetstar doesn't learn from these events.

It is good to have competition in the regions in NZ, but with only 5 Dash 8s it does appear to be more of a token effort going against a fleet of 48 Dash 8s and ATRs (by 2017).

If they had come in with 10 or 15 and been keen to operate to more destinations, then they would be a serious threat.

Waren 9: A friendly tip. Don't comment on what you know nothing about. Stick to your control steps that don't in any way imitate a standard jet descent profile.

JQ279 goes across the Tasman after ZQN.
AKL is 5th on the list of diversion airports.
Perhaps DUD was not appropriate. Any comments on all the other diversion airports available?

Once the pax were handed to the recovery team, it's got nothing to do with the pilots.

Question: why did a bus driver with 50 people on board not consult the NZTA website to see that the Lindis Pass was snowed in and required chains, then subsequently closed completely. Obviously comm break down between JQ and bus company, but a bus drivers job surely has some responsibility....