The first of Air New Zealand’s new-look Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners has touched down in Auckland, with a freshly configured interior offering more premium seating options for customers. The airline has refreshed the cabin configuration for its next four Dreamliner deliveries in response to growing demand for premium travel, increasing the number of Business Premier seats from 18 to 27 and Premium Economy seats from 21 to 33. Air New Zealand Chief Marketing and Customer Officer Mike Tod says the airline is expecting the new cabin layout to be popular with customers. “Since we introduced the Dreamliner, we have seen strong customer demand for our award-winning Business Premier and Premium Economy cabins and the products and service that come with these. Increasing the size of these cabins on our new 787-9 Dreamliners will give more customers than ever the opportunity to experience why Air New Zealand has been named by Airlineratings.com as the best airline in the world for the past four years,” Mr Tod says. Mr Tod says the team at Boeing has been excellent to work with during the design process. “They share our vision of taking comfort in the sky to the next level for more people and have supported Air New Zealand as we set a new benchmark for 787-9 Dreamliner travel,” he says. Boeing Commercial Airplanes Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific & India Sales Dinesh Keskar, says the manufacturer has enjoyed the opportunity to work with the 787-9 Dreamliner launch customer on this reconfiguration of the aircraft. “Since the launch of the 787-9 Dreamliner, Boeing and Air New Zealand have partnered together to bring a new level of capability and comfort to passengers around the world. With the delivery of its tenth 787-9 Dreamliner – and its newly refreshed interior – Air New Zealand is once again demonstrating its commitment to taking the customer experience to the next level,” Dr Keskar says. Air New Zealand was the first airline in the world to take delivery of the revolutionary 787-9 aircraft in 2014 and this latest arrival takes the airline’s fleet to 10 Dreamliners. The delivery is also the airline’s first from Boeing’s facility in North Charleston, South Carolina. The fleet has performed well to date, delivering good fuel efficiencies with each aircraft 20 percent more efficient than the aircraft they have replaced. The latest aircraft, with the tail number ZK-NZL arrived in Auckland just before 7pm last night, Sunday 8 October (local time). Air New Zealand’s newest aircraft is currently scheduled to enter service on Sunday 15 October, operating a service to Sydney. It will be deployed onto the Auckland–Houston route in December 2017, the first time a Dreamliner will regularly service one of the airline’s North American routes.

| An Air New Zealand release  ||  October 09,  2017   |||

Pratt & Whitney Canada has signed an agreement with Air New Zealand for engine servicing. This agreement covers the PW123s and PW127Ms which power Air Nelson's Q300s and Mount Cook's ATR 72-500s and -600s respectively. The two regional subsidiaries have a combined fleet of some fifty aircraft.

The Avianca group has signed a similar contract to service the PW127Ns which power its ATR 72-600s. It currently has around fifteen twin-engined turboprop aircraft and is still waiting for ten more.

In addition, the two groups have opted to install the FAST (Full flight data Acquisition, Storage and Transmission) solution, a predictive maintenance solution which manages the engine's health and its use by analysing and transmitting data collected during flights, especially information about propeller vibrations. For Avianca, the system will be particular useful for monitoring "boost" and "super boost" modes, activated during operations in "hot and high" conditions.

This technology has also just been improved as Pratt & Whitney Canada has integrated a propeller vibration trend monitoring function. "This new feature balances the propeller in "as condition" mode, to ensure a predictive and optimised environment designed to reduce operating costs and workloads for pilots and mechanics", explains the Canadian engine producer.

| A Le Journal de l’Aviation release  ||  October 5,  2017   |||

A return to 100 per cent jet fuel allocations at Auckland Airport is a great start to the school holidays for airlines and their customers, Energy and Resource Minister Judith Collins says.

Two weeks ago the fuel allocation was reduced to 30 per cent following the disruption to supply through the Marsden Refinery to Auckland pipeline. Fuel allocations were increased incrementally to 50 per cent then 80 per cent as alternatives to transporting fuel to Auckland Airport were found.

“Getting back to 100 per cent fuel allocation this morning is great news for the start of the school holidays. It is the result of the co-operation between government and industry in managing a complex logistical exercise in moving fuel through alternative routes by land, air and sea,” Ms Collins says.

“It should be noted that the Marsden Refinery to Auckland pipeline while repaired, will be operating at 80 per cent capacity into the New Year. However, the industry is confident that the pipeline will be able to deliver the amounts of jet fuel airlines need to operate normally.

“Trucks will continue transporting the 1.5 million litres of jet fuel stored at Wynyard Wharf until the tank is empty, which is expected to be toward the end of next week.

“It’s also good to hear from the industry that there are no longer any short-term outages at stations in Auckland. The pipeline is increasingly being used to deliver petrol and diesel into Auckland, which is continuing progress to normal supply. The fuel companies are looking at their logistics to ensure use of the pipeline and fuel being trucked in from outside of Auckland is balanced, and continues to ensure demand is met.”

| A Beehive release  ||  October 2,  2017   |||

Dubai: Emirates has had to change its ultra-long-haul flight from New Zealand to Dubai following a fuel shortage that has impacted a number of airlines flying to and from Auckland Airport.

In a statement sent to Gulf News on Tuesday, the UAE-based carrier confirmed that Emirates flight EK449 will now make a stopover in Melbourne to re-fuel, instead of flying direct to Dubai.Route change

The route change is in effect between September 18 and September 24.

“[The flight] operating from Auckland to Dubai between 18-24 September, will stop in Melbourne for refueling due to the Auckland Airport fuel shortage which has affected most international airlines,” an Emirates spokesperson said.

Passengers affected, however, will not have to disembark in the Australian city.

“Customers holding tickets with onward connections during this time are advised to contact their local Emirates office and check the status of their flight. Connecting flights will be rebooked as required,” the spokesperson added.

The airline launched its first non-stop service between Dubai and Auckland, considered to be one of the world’s longest scheduled flights, in March 2016.

The non-stop journey had an estimated flight time of 17 hours, 15 minutes from New Zealand to Dubai and just under 16 hours from Dubai to New Zealand.Related Links

Thousands stranded due to jet fuel shortage New Zealand’s fuel shortage hits more flights Nepal fuel shortage disrupts Gulf flights

Thousands of flyers have had their trips disrupted due to a fuel shortage caused by a damaged pipeline that brings fuel to Auckland.

The damage, which was discovered last Thursday, has prompted oil companies to ration the amount of fuel they are supplying to airlines operating out of Auckland.

“We are working with the airlines operating out of Auckland to minimize the impact on passengers. We are doing all we can to help people manage through this period of disruption,” Auckland airport said in its public advisory.

As of Tuesday, the fuel shortage caused the cancellation of 28 flights, six of them international, according to Reuters.

Foreign Minister Gerry Brownlee has announced New Zealand will provide $11.5 million for aviation security in the Pacific, to support trade, tourism and the safety of the travelling public, most of which are New Zealand citizens.

"Pacific island countries must meet global aviation safety and security standards, and this funding will provide passenger and baggage screening equipment that will help them to meet those standards," Mr Brownlee says.

"The aviation package of equipment and training will benefit nine countries over the next five years, and builds on our existing $2.5 million programme to help Pacific island countries to meet their international aviation regulatory obligations.

"As aviation security requirements are regularly increased, upgrades to security processes and screening equipment are necessary.

"The new security package will be provided to signatories of the Pacific Island Civil Aviation Safety and Security Treaty, which include Niue, the Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Samoa and Nauru," Mr Brownlee says.

New Zealand's aviation support to the Pacific is implemented by the Civil Aviation Authority New Zealand in cooperation with the Pacific Aviation Safety Office.

| A Beehive release   ||  September 8,  2017   |||

Auckland Airport has today announced its financial results for the 12 months ended 30 June 2017.

Sir Henry van der Heyden, Auckland Airport’s chair, says, “The 2017 financial year was another strong year of growth right across our business with the company continuing to focus on upgrading its airport infrastructure, growing and supporting tourism and providing the best possible customer experience during a time of significant change.”

“To help accommodate the ongoing increase in passengers and aircraft, we continued to spend more than $1 million every working day on our core airport infrastructure. There are now 44 aeronautical projects underway across the airport each in excess of $1 million and we plan to invest around $2 billion in aeronautical capital expenditure by the 2022 financial year. During the 2017 financial year, we progressed the upgrade of our international departure area and the extension of Pier B of the international terminal to provide two more aircraft gates and expanded departure lounges. We also further developed our airfield including upgrading existing and building new remote aircraft stands.”

“We have continued to sustainably grow travel markets to increase our air connectivity – which is essential for a city and country reliant on tourism and trade for its economic prosperity. We have also maintained our support for the New Zealand tourism industry, especially the operators who provide our international visitors with high-quality experiences. We also joined with other industry leaders to encourage the Government to develop new and innovative ways to upgrade tourism infrastructure.”

“Auckland Airport remained focused on its customers during the 2017 financial year, ensuring their journeys through the airport are fast and efficient and they have a range of options when parking, shopping or staying here. Improving travel times and flows around the airport precinct has been a top priority for the company in the 2017 financial year and we also continued to advocate to central and local government the need for better public transport services and state highway access to and from the airport.”

“We fast-tracked a number of planned roading and transport improvements on our own network to improve traffic flows, including upgrading the Puhinui Road roundabout, upgrading the traffic light phasing and lane configurations at the airport’s George Bolt Memorial Drive and Tom Pearce Drive intersection, and updating the lane configurations at the airport’s George Bolt Memorial Drive and Laurence Stevens Drive roundabout. We also announced, in June 2017, the details of four new transport projects as part of our longer-term plan to improve travel around the airport over the next three years.”

“Late in the 2017 financial year we announced our new aeronautical prices for the next five financial years – the result of a year-long consultation process with airlines on investment plans, operations and pricing. The outcome of that consultation process, in real terms, sees average annual international passenger charges reducing by 1.7% per annum and domestic passenger charges increasing by just 0.8% per annum over the next five years. We also confirmed that a runway land charge of $1.19 (excluding GST) per passenger will likely be introduced from the start of the 2021 financial year once certain operational and construction triggers are met.”

“Together, our modest price changes for the 2018–2022 financial years and our $2 billion infrastructure investment plan will deliver significant benefits for passengers. The new pricing and capital expenditure programme also balances the needs of passengers, the airport community, the tourism industry, our investors and the airlines – ensuring Auckland Airport has the infrastructure it needs to continue connecting Auckland with New Zealand and New Zealand with the world.”

“The 2017 financial year also saw Auckland Airport continue to focus on a wide range of activities to improve educational, employment and environmental outcomes at the airport, in our local communities and across the Auckland region. Ara, our airport jobs and skills hub, continues to deliver real benefits, providing more than 1,300 training opportunities and placing 190 people into jobs – 82% of whom were South Aucklanders.”

In the year to 30 June 2017 the total number of passengers using Auckland Airport increased by 10.2% to 19 million. Domestic passengers were up 8.9% to 8.6 million, international passengers (excluding transit passengers) were up 11% to 9.7 million and international transit passengers were up 16.8% to 0.7 million.

Total revenue was up 9.7% to $629.3 million, while operating expenses were up 8.8% to $156.2 million. Earnings before interest expense, taxation, depreciation, fair value adjustments and investments in associates (EBITDAFI) increased 9.9% to $473.1 million.

The total share of the underlying profit from associates was $14.9 million for the 2017 financial year, up 29.6%. The underlying profit share from Queenstown Airport was up 57.9% to $3 million and the share from the Novotel hotel, in which Auckland Airport increased its shareholding to 40% in February 2017, was up 58.8% to $2.7 million. The underlying profit share from North Queensland Airports was up 16.5% to $9.2 million.

Total profit after tax was up 26.9% to $332.9 million, while underlying profit after tax was up 16.5% to $247.8 million. As a result, underlying earnings per share is up 16.2% to 20.8 cents. Auckland Airport’s final dividend for the 2017 financial year is up 16.7% to 10.5 cents per share, delivering a total dividend of 20.5 cents, an increase of 17.1% compared with the 2016 financial year. The final dividend will be imputed at the company tax rate of 28% and will be paid on 20 October 2017 to shareholders who are on the register at the close of business on 6 October 2017. Auckland Airport’s performance in the 2017 financial year means the five-year average annual shareholder return is 26.3%.

“In the 2017 financial year we undertook a review of our 24.55% investment in North Queensland Airports (NQA). We believe NQA is a highly attractive asset and a great investment with a strong growth strategy and a new and highly capable management team. However, our review has confirmed that while NQA is a quality asset, it is not integral to our current business strategy.”

“During the 2017 financial year, the Board elected to reinstate our dividend reinvestment plan to provide funding flexibility to support our investment in new infrastructure and growth opportunities. The dividend reinvestment plan will again be in place for the 2017 financial year final dividend, enabling shareholders to elect to purchase Auckland Airport shares at a 2.5% discount to market price, instead of receiving the dividend as cash.”

“We expect underlying profit after tax (excluding any fair value changes and other one-off items) for the 2018 financial year to be between $248 million and $257 million. This guidance would deliver underlying earnings per share growth of up to 3.7% compared with the 2017 financial year and reflects the impact of our new aeronautical prices commencing in the 2018 financial year.”

“As always, this guidance is subject to any material adverse events, significant one-off expenses, non-cash fair value changes to property, and deterioration as a result of global market conditions or other unforeseeable circumstances,” concludes Sir Henry.

Auckland Airport has welcomed the announcement by Philippine Airlines that it will introduce a direct flight on its Manila to Auckland route.

From December 2017 Philippine Airlines will be the first airline to fly non-stop from Manila to Auckland using a 254-seat Airbus A340 aircraft. The direct flight will replace the current Manila to Auckland via Cairns service.

Scott Tasker, Auckland Airport’s general manager aeronautical commercial, says the new non-stop service will add more than 14,000 seats to the route, increasing seat capacity by 22%, and inject $13.6 million annually into the New Zealand economy.

“With more than 7,000 tropical islands, the Philippines is a popular destination and last year nearly 30,000 New Zealanders travelled there.

“The direct flight will also enable New Zealanders to connect to the 73 destinations on the Philippine Airlines network including the United Kingdom, Asia, North America and the Middle East,” says Mr Tasker.

“More than 40,000 Filipinos live in New Zealand and will now be able to fly non-stop to and from the Philippines. It will also accommodate the growing number of Filipino visitors who are holidaying or visiting friends and family in New Zealand.”

Introducing a larger aircraft on the route will also allow for an additional 14 tonnes of cargo capacity per flight. In the year ended March 2017, New Zealand exported $468m of dairy products to the Philippines, making it the eighth largest market for dairy exports.

| An Auckland Airport release  ||  August 17,  2017   |||

Which airlines have young, shiny new aircraft – and which have the oldest and creakiest? A Swiss operation that specialises in providing up-to-date airline intelligence has revealed the answer and given specifics.

The Swiss firm is Ch-aviation. It shows that in our own region, Virgin Australia has reason to smile, as does Air New Zealand, Air Tahiti Nui and Qantas’ Auckland-based trans-Tasman subsidiary Jetconnect.

Taking first place with the youngest fleet in the world is Norwegian UK. The average age of a Norwegian UK plane is just under one year. Hard to beat that!

Rounding out the rest of the world’s top five – all with an average fleet age of less than two years – are two Chinese airlines Colorful Guizhou Airlines (hands up anyone who’s heard of that!) and Loong Air (ditto) along with Germany’s Eurowings, and Swiss Global Air Lines.

Here’s a fine old plane! Lufthansa once flew this Junkers Ju 52 German tri-motor plane, named Rudolf von Thuna. It’s now on display as a vintage model in Munich Airport’ Visitors Park.

The results don’t break out Australasia as a separate region. It’s included with Oceania. While Virgin Australia makes an appearance in the youthful category, Qantas isn’t mentioned at all. That may be because the average age of the Qantas fleet is somewhere in the middle and neither old enough, nor young enough, to be included in either extreme. The wholly-owned Qantas subsidary Jetconnect, which operates trans-Tasman services from Auckland, gets a mention.

“What our data clearly shows is the tremendous growth in Europe and Asia over the past few years while they move to lower-cost models,” said Thomas Jaeger, chief executive of ch-aviation. “And Chinese start-ups have the benefit of good access to capital for new aircraft.”

The bottom five was quite a different story, with Africa and North America doing battle for the oldest fleets. In bottom position is Kenya’s Fly SAX with an average aircraft age of 36 years old, followed by Nolinor Aviation (Canada), African Express Airways (Kenya), Western Air Bahamas, and Pacific Coastal Airlines (Canada).

“Obviously we see something quite different in Canada and Kenya, which both have a lot of smaller carriers operating in remote areas,” Jaeger says. “And many African airlines which want to expand simply don’t have the cash for brand new aircraft.” Taking out top spots for youngest fleet on each continent were:

• Africa – RwandAir;
• Asia – Colorful Guizhou Airlines;
• Europe – Norwegian UK;
• North America – WestJet Encore;
• Oceania – Air Tahiti;
• South America – Conviasa.

Ch-aviation claims to maintain “the world’s largest and most comprehensive B2B databases in civil aviation, providing up-to-the-minute information on fleets, aircrafts, ownership, contacts, routes, and worldwide flight schedule data (in cooperation with OAG)”.

Continue to read the full list here on eGlobalTRavelMedia ||  August  11,  2017   |||

Cathay Pacific needs someone from the Swire family to “come out and lead the company for a while,” according to the airline’s latest big investor, quoted by the South China Morning Post.

Circuit-board tycoon Cheung Kwok-wing, who has bought an 8.3% stake in Cathay, expects the airline to return to financial health in six to 12 months, according to the newspaper.

The Swire Group, very British, is deeply rooted in China, in Hong Kong and in Cathay Pacific. The Swire Group’s privately owned parent company is John Swire & Sons Limited, founded by John Swire (1793–1847) in 1816. Swire’s roots in China date back to before the first Opium War between Britain and China.http://www.granmonte.com/

The publicly quoted Swire Pacific Limited holds the Swire Group’s core businesses in Hong Kong. They are grouped into property, aviation, beverages and food, marine services, trading and industrial. In 1948, Swire Pacific acquired Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s largest airline, and remains as the largest shareholder with 45% shareholding.

Current chairman of the Swire Group is British billionaire businessman Barnaby Nicholas Swire.

Bloomberg’s Gadfly has suggested that one strategy for the airline would be to embrace, rather than fight China’s growing might. There’s conjecture that Air China may make a move on Cathay Pacific, taking it over to create the world’s largest cargo airline and second-largest passenger carrier. If you combine Air China and Cathay Pacific, the joint entity is bigger, in revenue-passenger-kilometre terms, than Emirates.

Air China could promote Cathay as its premium brand.

Bloomberg Businessweek notes that Cathay is now the most richly valued of the world’s major airlines, despite heading to its second consecutive year of losses. It speculates that the current Chinese leadership, very patriotic, might see value in bringing under Chinese ownership the one big Chinese airline that’s still run by British aristocrats. It might pay a lot for that.

| Written by Peter Needham for eTravel NewsMedia  ||  August 3,  2017   \\\

The Connecticut-headquartered engine and aerospace leader will pay compensation to Indian airline IndiGo after not being able to supply enough spare engines that power Airbus A320neo jets.

Pratt & Whitney is paying compensation to Indian airline IndiGo as the manufacturer struggles to fix glitches in engines that power Airbus SE’s new A320neo jets.

“We continue to have a higher number of engine removals, and sufficient spare engines have not been available,” IndiGo President Aditya Ghosh said on a conference call Monday. “The operational disruptions are quite challenging, and we are not happy with that situation.”

The airline, operated by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd., was forced to ground as many nine new A320neo jets on some days, Ghosh said. It may be a year or so before Pratt & Whitney implements design changes to the geared turbofan, he said, declining to comment on the amount, mode or the timing of the compensation.

The groundings, which emerged in recent months, are holding back IndiGo’s push to add capacity to maintain its domestic market share of more than 40% amid a travel boom triggered by an emerging middle-class flying for the first time. The airline, India’s biggest and the world’s top customer for the A320neo, has said in the past it will consider a rival engine manufactured by CFM International, an alliance of General Electric Co. and Safran SA, if glitches persist with the Pratt engines.Pratt Confidence

Pratt, a unit of United Technologies Corp., is confident it’s getting a handle on the problems, saying last week that it still expects to hit a 2017 delivery target of 350 to 400 engines. The company is incorporating revised carbon seals to address a durability issue and should have a fix by October for a separate glitch with the combustor liner, United Technologies Chief Financial Officer Akhil Johri said in a recent interview.

While he acknowledged the issues are affecting customers, Johri said last week that “we feel GTF problems are understood and behind us to a large extent, from a production point of view.”

India has the largest fleet of A320neos and the country’s aviation regulator earlier this year ordered two airline operators to inspect powerplants with more than 1,000 hours of service. Pratt has been working to fix durability issues and production snags that have hampered the debut of the engine, which was selected to power new jets from Airbus, Bombardier Inc. and Embraer SA.

“A320neos have not been delivered as per the plan with Airbus,” Interglobe Aviation Chief Financial Officer Rohit Philip said, adding it is hurting the company’s profitability. “To make up for the shortfall, we had to go to the aircraft-leasing market, and had to enter into short-term leases for used A320s.”A Crucial Market for Pratt

India is a crucial market for both Airbus and Pratt, with IndiGo having ordered 430 of the A320neo jets, of which 22 have been delivered. Go Airlines India Ltd. has five in operation and was awaiting deliveries of 139 more. State-run Air India Ltd. and Vistara, the local affiliate of Singapore Airlines Ltd., also fly A320neos, but they are powered by CFM engines.

IndiGo, controlled by billionaire founders Rahul Bhatia and Rakesh Gangwal, will begin owning aircraft, purchasing them using cash in hand, in a move away from a sale-and-leaseback model it has followed so far, Philip said. New aircraft will be in service for more than the typical six years that the carrier now sees and will enable the airline to cut down on leased planes, the company said.

“We are shifting our fleet acquisition policy to allow us to reduce our operating costs, which will result in higher profitability in the longer term,” Philip said.

IndiGo said it had total cash of 101.8 billion rupees ($1.59 billion) as of June.

Profit for the quarter ended June 30 rose 37% to 8.1 billion rupees ($122.22 million), the company said Monday. IndiGo has made money every year since at least the period starting April 2009, even as the Indian airline industry lost a combined $10 billion over a similar period.

IndiGo shares rose 0.4% to close at 1,290 rupees ($20.10) in Mumbai. They have risen 57% this year, compared with a 22% advance in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex index.

|  An Industry Week release  ||  August 2,  2017   |||