Air NZ's flexible Queenstown flights scoop up 90% of traffic

Friday 13th July 2001

BEECH 1900D: Will replace the Metroliners and the Bandeirantes

PAUL DONOVAN: 'We can go from 19 seats through 33, 66 and 99 to 120 with the Boeings - and that's real flexibility'

By Graeme Kennedy

New Zealand's tourism capital, Queenstown, is almost back to full airline capacity following the collapse of Qantas New Zealand which left the resort town and other regional destinations seriously short of aircraft seats for both business and leisure travellers.

Tourism Queenstown chief executive David Kennedy estimates total capacity after a daily code-shared Qantas-Origin Pacific Dash-8 service begins on Monday will be 7250 seats a week compared with 7790 when the route was operated by Air New Zealand, its regional carriers and Qantas New Zealand.

However, capacity share has changed dramatically - from Air New Zealand with 76% and Qantas New Zealand 24% to Air New Zealand 89%, Qantas 6% and Origin 5%, Mr Kennedy said.

"Having almost 90% of the biggest tourist destination in the country is a huge boost for Air New Zealand," he said.

"We are still down 540 seats a week and as we are coming into our high season, we expect more capacity will be put on the route."

Air New Zealand vice-president for sales and marketing Paul Donovan said the capacity mix provided by his group's range of regional equipment gave the flexibility to move different-sized aircraft from route to route to meet growth demands.

The carrier's regional airlines, which operate under the Link brand, include Mount Cook which operates eight ATR-72s, Eagle with six Metroliners and 11 Bandeirantes and Air Nelson with six Metros and 13 Saabs.

However, the Metros and Bandeirantes will start to go after the first of 16 replacement Beech 1900Ds arrives from the US next month.

The 19-seat 1900Ds will operate the smaller provincial routes, the 33-seat Saabs the major provincial-city sectors and the 66-seat ATRs will continue to fly the tourist routes and feeds from provinces to connect with Air New Zealand's 737 fleet.

The carrier last month introduced two BAe 146s, previously leased and flown by Qantas New Zealand, to provide capacity from Auckland to Dunedin and Christchurch - both areas affected by lack of capacity after the Qantas New Zealand collapse.

"We have the total offering, not just on the trunks with a few code-shares," Mr Donovan said in an unveiled reference to the opposition.

"We have had many years building the networks with the regionals and they have always had a high profile here as we have carefully matched equipment to routes and demand.

"Now we can go from 19 seats through 33, 66 and 99 to 120 with the Boeings - and that's real flexibility."

Mr Donovan said the regional equipment was quickly brought in to provide urgently needed capacity to move thousands of travellers stranded by the Qantas New Zealand collapse in April.

"We shifted 50,000 passengers, put on 2400 extra flights and provided 70,000 more seats across the board with the Boeings and the Link carriers Eagle, Nelson and Mount Cook," he said.

"It could not have been done without the regionals - they were critical to the whole exercise and to have them as we do is one of the key strengths of the Air New Zealand Group.

"With Qantas New Zealand going down, we didn't have a reservations system to tell us about demand or bookings - we just had people turning up at the terminals.

"We didn't know from day to day how many were going to arrive at any airport, but our vice-president of regional airlines Howard Jellie somehow choreographed the whole thing to keep New Zealand moving."

Mr Donovan said the emergency timetable using the regional carriers would be continued through next month, giving Air New Zealand alone more capacity on most routes than was available before the Qantas New Zealand collapse.

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