Air NZ to make announcement about regional fleet

[Will H]

Air New Zealand Chief Executive Officer Rob Fyfe will make a significant announcement related to the airline’s regional fleet at 1pm Wednesday Auckland time.

Who wants to guess?

[Max C]

Single type for all the regionals?

Q400, ATR72-600 ?

[Rowan McKeever]

If it's single type then Q400 would make sense to replace the Mount Cook ATRs and fit with the Air Nelson Q300s.

[A McLaughlin]

ATR is the rumour

[Steve S... 2]

Yuck... hopefully not...

[Richard H.]

I've flown the Mt Cook ATR-72-500s quite a bit in the last few years, they are fine. True, they aren't as cool as the old Avro 748s but it is an imperfect universe! :D
NZ isn't very big so you don't really need the 'near-jet' speeds of the Q400. I suspect the operating costs of the ATR may have some bearing on the matter too. We shall see.

[Damian N]

Given the Q300 is no longer in production I assume these late model Q300s would have a decent resale value which would probably sway the numbers also???:confused:

[Rowan McKeever]

I agree the ATR on paper seems to suit NZ better (no need for the extra speed, lower CASM), I just wonder if Air NZ might see longer-term synergies with the existing Q300s as the existing ATRs are no spring chickens? Then again as Damian suggests Air NZ may have a trick up their sleeve there too?

[A McLaughlin]

I hear it's 12 ATRs starting from 4Q 2012

[Rowan McKeever]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=10760176

12 ATR72-600, subject to contract signing.

[Ryan Hothersall]

Are these new ATRs for fleet expansion or to replace the older ones operated ny Air NZ link/Mount Cook?.

[Rowan McKeever]

Additional to the current -500s

[Jarden S]

Air NZ says they are the most effecient aircraft in its class.
1st one arrives in OCT 12 2nd in DEC 12
2 more in 2013 and 1 each year after for 3 years to take the total to 7 firm orders and 5 options.

[Richard H.]

Are the 72-500's that old? Surely they are still under 10 years at this point? IIRC, Mt Cook originally purchased 72-200s and then through some arcane means managed to swap them out with new build 72-500s a short time later. At any rate the ones I have been flying in still seem rather clean and fresh.

I am guessing these will not spell the end of the Q300 or the B1900 in the NZ regional fleets though. From what I have seen, regional air travel in NZ is still expanding steadily.

I really hope this influx has no effect on the Air Chathams CV.580s though. I'm still aiming for a trip or two on one of them someday! :cool: