Trouble in Paradise

There is serious trouble for Vanuatu and Bauerfield International Airport Port Vila.

Yesterday Air New Zealand announced it was suspending its once weekly AKL-VLI service and cancelling its codeshare on Air Vanuatu flights due to the deteriorating condition of the airport runway. Further video from 3news.co.nz HERE

Today Qantas have announced they too are cancelling their codeshares on Air Vanuatu flights from VLI to BNE & SYD.

Virgin Australia have announced they are sending safety experts to Vanuatu this weekend to assess the situation and it is expected they too will suspend their BNE-VLI flights.

This leaves Fiji Airways and Aircalin & Flysolomons (Solomon Airlines) as the remaining international operators as well as local airline Air Vanuatu, but for how long?.

Air Vanuatu itself is experiencing issues, in November they farewelled their B738 YJ-AV1 after its lease ended, its replacement is due at the end of January with uplift in the interim covered by the dry lease of Transavia Airways B738 PH-HSA. However PH-HSA hasn't flown since 21 January 2016 with B738 services having been cancelled and B733s VH-YNU & VH-PNI of Nauru Airlines covering some services.

Comings and goings #2

Here is a quick look at some of the notable comings and goings for airlines in the Australia/New Zealand region between the last update in March and now.

Air New Zealand have reduced their Boeing 737 fleet to just two frames, with two more leaving the fleet.
ZK-NGG Boeing 737-33A deregistered 17-June-2015 and noted recently in CHC wearing N303KH
ZK-NGR Boeing 737-33A deregistered 01-May-2015
ZK-EAK Beech 1900D deregistered 17-June-2015
During the period they gained the following A320
ZK-OXI Airbus A320 registered 13-April-2015

To enable Sounds Air's expansion and its replacement of Air new Zealand on some services Sounds Air have taken delivery of the following aircraft
ZK-PLS Pilatus PC12/45 registered 16-March-2015 ex VH-KWO
ZK-PLZ Pilatus PC12/45 registered 28-May-2015 ex VH-JMU
ZK-PLT Pilatus PC12/45 not yet registered still registered as VH-MWO arrived in NZ on 04-June-2015

The departure of the former Vincent Aviation fleet continues
ZK-VAI J31 deregistered 28-May-2015 to A3-SKY with Real Tonga Airlines delivered 04-June-2015
ZK-ECO BAe 146-200 deregistered 20-April-2015 to VH-SUF with Skyforce (Pionair Australia)registered 24-April-2015
VH-VNU Saab SF340B deregistered 7-April-2015 Exported to Guam with Skydive Guam

Cobham (National Jet Express) have taken delivery of another aircraft
VH-NJU Avro RJ85 registered 10-June-2015

Jetstar continued to receive Boeing 787-8s
VH-VKJ Boeing 787-8 registered 30-April-2015
VH-VKK Boeing 787-8 registered 19-May-2015

There have been several changes to the Qantas fleets
VH-NHY EMB120R deregistered 02-March-2015 exported to South Africa
VH-OGI Boeing 767-300 deregistered 06-May-2015 exported to USA
VH-OGL Boeing 767-300 deregistered 07-Aptil-2015 exported to USA
VH-OGO Boeing 767-300 deregistered 19-June-2015 exported to USA
VH-OGT Boeing 767-300 deregistered 16-June-2015 exported to USA
VH-TJI Boeing 737-476 deregistered 27-May-2015 exported to USA
VH-TJK Boeing 737-476 deregistered 30-April-2015 exported to USA
VH-OJA Boeing 747-400 deregistered 31-March-2015 to HAARS Aviation Museum Wooloongong

The next wave of Virgin Australia deliveries have been registered but are yet to be delivered, interestingly they have returned to the YF* rego block after receiving deliveries in the YI* block, suggesting these will be domestic aircraft. 
VH-YFS Boeing 737-8FE registered 12-May-2015 not yet delivered
VH-YFT Boeing 737-8FE registered 12-May-2015 not yet delivered
VH-YFU Boeing 737-8FE registered 12-May-2015 not yet delivered
VH-YFV Boeing 737-8FE registered 12-May-2015 not yet delivered

JQ to the regions in NZ

Jetstar look set to enter deeper into their head to head battle with Air New Zealand in New Zealand, announcing they will base a 5 strong fleet of Dash 8 Q300 aircraft in New Zealand to fly regional routes.

In a period where Air New Zealand has downsized its regional flying and is reducing its regional fleet types, Sounds Air and Air Chathams are filling in the gaps left by Air New Zealand and new player Kiwi Regional Airlines has announced its intentions, this decision from Jetstar is certainly interesting.

The five Q300s will come from Qantas Link subsidiary Eastern Australian Airlines who will operate the aircraft for Jetstar.  Jetstar is still evaluating which routes it will fly the Q300s on from December and is seeking public feedback on proposed routes including Hamilton, Rotorua, New Plymouth, Napier, Palmerston North, Nelson and Invercargill.

Jetstar made the announcement this morning in Auckland with Qantas CEO Alan Joyce in attendance as well as New Zealand Prime Minister John Key.

Read more on the Jetstar announcement via one of these sources
stuff.co.nz HERE
nzherald.co.nz HERE
ausbt.com.au HERE

A return to the past... AA to SYD & QF to SFO

One world alliance partners Qantas and American Airlines have announced a 'return to the past' with their recent joint launch.

American Airlines will return to the LAX-SYD route after a 23 year absence while Qantas will return to the SYD-SFO route after a 4 year absence.

American will operate daily on the pacific route with its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.

Qantas will initially launch SFO on peak days moving to 6x weekly in January 2016.  They will utilise Boeing 747-400 aircraft freed up from the reduction of MEL/SYD-LAX flying which they will give over to AA.

Read more about the joint route announcements via
Australian Aviation - HERE
Australian Business Traveller - HERE, HERE & HERE

Qantas set for return on PER-SIN

Qantas will return to the PER-SIN route, this time with a 737-800 service.

Flights will resume on Friday 26-June-2015 which will be just over a year since they axed their former PER-SIN A330 service.

QF71 will depart PER at 12:00AWST arriving into SIN at 17:20SGT then QF72 departs SIN at 18:25SGT landing back in PER at 23:40AWST

Flights will operate 5x Weekly We,Fr, Sa-Mo

Pacific disruptions due to TC Pam

TC Pam seen covering New Caledonia and Vanuatu

There are disruptions to flights across the South Pacific today with tropical cyclone Pam effecting flights into New Caledonia and Vanuatu.

Air New Zealand has postponed flight NZ782 AKL-NOU for over 32hrs, the flight was scheduled to depart Auckland this morning Saturday 14-March-2015 at 10.05NZDT but will now depart tomorrow Sunday 15-March-2015 at 18:15NZDT.
It is not yet know if flight NZ788 AKL-VLI scheduled for 09:40NZDT tomorrow will be delayed or cancelled as the cyclone tracks south.

Virgin Australia have postponed flight VA171 BNE-VLI from 10:30AEST today to 10:40AEST tomorrow.

Qantas have postponed flight QF87 BNE-NOU from 10:00AEST today until 09:30AEST tomorrow, meanwhile QF91 SYD-NOU has been cancelled.

Air Vanuatu have cancelled both their flights today NF50/51 VLI-AKL-VLI and NF10/11 VLI-SYD-VLI

Meanwhile Aircalin have launched both their flights today with A320 F-OJSB departing NOU for MEL as SB110 and A330 F-OHSD departing NOU for NRT as SB800, it appears that both return flights will operate delayed.  SB111 MEL-NOU delayed from 14:20AEDT to 08:00AEDT while SB801 NRT-NOU will delay from 12:15JST to 19:15JST

Qantas route announcements

Qantas have made a few route announcements in the last coupe of weeks and look set to make at least one more - here is a round up.

BNE-NRT

As mentioned in my news round up vlog post in December last year, Qantas announced they would introduce a 4x weekly A330 service on the Brisbane to Tokyo Narita route and were looking to add another port to fill the remaining 3x weekly slots.  Qantas have now announced that the BNE-NRT flight will operate daily.

MEL-HTI

Qantas have announced that from Saturday 27-June-2015 they will take over the Melbourne to Hamilton Island service from Jetstar, offering passengers a premium service on this route. QF870/871 will operate on Saturdays and Sundays with a Boeing 737-800.

MEL-PPP

With Qantas taking over their Hamilton Island service, Jetstar have announced a new 3x weekly Melbourne - Proserpine (Whitsunday Coast)  The first flight will be on Thursday 25-June-2015 with JQ831/832 operating Th-Sa-Mo utilising Jetstar's Airbus A320 aircraft.

SYD-YVR

Qantas have announced a return to the Sydney - Vancouver route with a seasonal 3x weekly Boeing 747-400 service.  Services will operate during the northern summer in June-July and again in the northern winter December-January.  QF75/76 will operate on Mo-Th-Sa

PER-SIN

While not yet officially announced Qantas are set to return to the Perth - Singapore route with a daily Boeing 737-800 service.  Qantas last served this route in July 2104 with A330 equipment.  Timetables show the new flights, QF71/72, are set to depart from Saturday 13-June-2014


Read more about these services:

BNE-NRT/MEL-HTI/MEL-PPP via Qantas Media Release HERE
SYD-YVR via Qantas Media Release HERE
PER-SIN via airlineroute.net HERE

Farewell QF 767s

Today is the end of an era with the final revenue flights of the remaining 5 Qantas Boeing 767 frames.

The final flight of the type will be this afternoon (27/12/14) at 17:00AEDT/04:00UST from MEL to SYD with the flight renumbered to QF0767 in honour of the end of an era.

The 767 entered into service with Qantas in 1985 with the -238ER version.  Qantas then ordered the -338ER version in 1987.

To honour the fleet retirement here is a collection of some of my Qantas 767 shots

VH-OGF: MSN 24853 in QF service from new 1990-2012

VH-OGP: MSN 28153 in QF service from new 1996-2014

VH-OGT: MSN 29117 in QF service since new 1998-2014

VH-ZXC: MSN24339 ex British Airways, with QF 2000-2013

VH-ZXD: MSN 24342 ex British Airways, with QF 2000-2013

VH-ZXF: MSN 25203 ex British Airways, with QF 2000-2013

VH-ZXG: MSN 25443 ex British Airways, with QF 2000-2013

News round up vlog

Time for another video post, this time rounding up some of the recent news from Air New Zealand, Qantas, Scoot and LAN

VCV finally makes it to air

The item on 60 Minutes Australia on the retirement flight of Qantas Boeing 767 VH-OGG to VCV and the aircraft graveyard finally aired last night in Australia, after several weeks of delay.

Although the item is yet to appear on their youtube channel, it does feature on their app and extras can be seen on youtube including the below birdseye view of the graveyard.

I apologise if this or the app is geo-locked outside of Australia

VCV boneyard story delayed

As mentioned in this POST, 60 minutes Australia were scheduled to show a story tonight on the retirement of the Qantas 767 fleet and the "aircraft graveyard" at Victorville.

However due to a dodgy political 'special investigation' the story did not air tonight.  Hopefully the story will air next Sunday night instead.

VCV aviation boneyard to feature on Australian 60 minutes

This Sunday night 60 Minutes Australia which screens on the Nine Network has an item on the retirement of the Qantas Boeing 767 fleet and the boneyard they are being stored in at Victorville in California.

Reporter Charles Wooley reports from aboard Qantas Boeing 767 VH-OGG (former wearer of the Disney Planes livery) as it departs the Qantas fleet to the boneyard.

The story will air during this Sunday's broadcast 20:00 AEST 7-September-2014 and will be available on the 9 Jumpin website afterwards.

For those of you outside Australia who may experience geo-blocking the story will feature on the 60 minutes youtube channel HERE from Monday AEST, or you can download the 60 minutes Australia APP and watch it that way

QF first to announce YBWW service

Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport in Toowoomba has today announced that QantasLink is the first airline to confirm it will fly from the new airport.

The announcement came around lunchtime today with the Queensland Premier Campbell Newman landing at the airport aboard King Air 350i VH-WJW owned by the Wagner family who have built the airport.

On hand at the announcement with the Premier was member for Nango Deb Frecklington, QantasLink CEO John Gissing and members of the Wagner Family

QantasLink will fly the WEL-SYD route with 11 flights weekly commencing on Monday 17-November-2014 using their 74 seat Q400 aircraft

The Wagner family, QantasLink & the Queensland Premier announce flights to Wellcamp - via Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport Facebook page

Read more via Brisbane Times HERE, the Wellcamp Airport Facebook page HERE, or the Qantas media release HERE

JQ also have a loss

As mentioned in the Qantas Group loss post, Jetstar also had a full year loss of $116m ($AUD) down from a profit of $138m in FY13

Jetstar's domestic Australian operations were profitable as they have been every year since the launch in 2004.

The losses are attributed to unfavourable fuel costs of $86m, a $113m yield decline across the JQ group and $70m in costs for the rapid acceleration of the Jetstar Japan operation, as well as another $20m in costs for other Jetstar operations in Asia.

- Jetstar Asia is the leading LCC in Singapore
- Jetstar Japan is the fastest growing LCC in Japan
- Jetstar Pacific in Vietnam is growing and will increase its fleet from 7 to 10 by December 2014
- Jetstar Hong Kong is still stuck on the ground awaiting regulatory approval

Fleet
As mentioned in the Qantas post there have been some fleet changes with Jetstar

- JQi has received 4x B787-8 enabling it to return 3x A332 to Qantas
- JQd(AU) has sold 5x A320 on order based on the subdued outlook for domestic growth
- 21x A320 currently on order have been deferred for 4 years and converted into an order for 21x A320neo taking the total A320neo order to 99 frames
- The final 3 B787-8 of the original 14 frame have been deferred (previously announced)

The Jetstar result is buried in the middle of the Qantas group announcement and can be found in the Qantas Group FY14 Financial Results Media Release document HERE

QF group lose big

Day two of Australasian Aviation financial announcements saw Qantas announce a record $2.843 billion ($AUD) full year loss.

Qantas has reported a lower than expected full-year underlying loss before tax of $646 million, but booked a statutory loss of $2.8 billion as a result of hefty restructuring charges and writedowns to its fleet.

One of the most notable hits was the historic write down of the international fleet at $2.6b most notably due to an exchange rate of around $0.68 AUD-USD at time of purchase.

Qantas domestic had an underlying profit of just $30m for FY14 down from $365m in FY13, however Qantas International saw the biggest hit with an underlying loss of $497m compared with $246m in FY13

Jetstar had an underlying loss but I will focus on this in a separate post.

Qantas Freight made an underlying profit of $24m down from $36m in FY13, however Qantas Loyalty had the best result with an underlying profit of $286m up from $260m in FY13.

The Qantas Group expects to return to an underlying profit before tax in the first half of FY15 based on the following expectations:

• A target of $300m of Qantas Transformation benefits to be realised in the first half

• A stabilising operating environment, as market capacity growth subsides

• First half fuel costs in line with the first half of FY14

• The repeal of the carbon tax

• Reduced depreciation costs compared with the first half of FY14 

Fleet Changes

There are some interesting changes to the QF fleet coming out of this announcement.

QFi
- Gradual replacement of B747s with A330s on Australia to Asia routes including all SYD/BNE-SIN by Sept 2014
- Early retirement of 4x B747 with the remainder of the non-reconfigured B747s to leave by early 2016
- Push back the options on 50x B787 from 2016 into 2017
- Defer the delivery of the final 8x A380(previously announced)
- Defer the final 3 B787-8 deliveries for JQ (previously announced)

QFd - including QantasLink, Network Aviation, Jetstar and Jetconnect
- reduce turn time for domestic aircraft to improve utilisation
- refurbishment of B737-800 fleet to be completed by mid 2015, provides a total 3% capacity increase
- Early retirement of B767 fleet, to be gone by end of 2014!
- Retirement of Network Aviations fleet of Embraer Brasillia EMB120 effective immediately
- Retire 2x B738 due to increased utilisation, 1 to come from domestic 1 to come from Jetconnect
- Not renew lease on 2x A330-200s which will leave the fleet in early 2016
- 5x A320s ordered for Jetstar have been sold
- 2x QantasLink Q300 will be sold during FY15
- defer order for 21x A320 for Jetstar by 4 years and convert into order for 21x A320neo


Read all of the announcements to the ASX, including the media release, the CEO's address, the Investor presentation and the Fleet Update HERE

QF 'give up' share on tasman with route cuts

In another sign that QF is struggling, the airline has announced they will cut up to 15 Trans-Tasman flights to Auckland per week.

From October 26th Qantas will cut their MEL-AKL and SYD-AKL services by one flight a day while cutting BNE-AKL to just 5 flights per week down from double daily.

In July 2013 Qantas pledged to maintain "existing capacity on trans-Tasman routes that both Qantas and Emirates fly" as a condition of approval for its partnership with Emirates, and the airline says it will continue to comply with that requirement.

Most if not all of these flights are operated by Jetconnect the New Zealand based subsidiary airline that has a lower cost base than Qantas itself.

Jetstar will step in adding a new 6x weekly MEL-AKL and weekly SYD-AKL services but will drop their 3x weekly ADL-AKL service.

Virgin Australia and Air New Zealand are expected to benefit as their alliance picks up any additional passengers and or flights required on these routes, as VA earlier this year reported that Trans-Tasman was in good shape.

Read more about Qantas' cuts from Australian Business Traveller editor David Flynn HERE

QF upgrade QF7/8 and axe BNE

In what can not be described as any unexpected move Qantas today have announced that they are replacing their daily SYD-DFW-BNE-SYD Boeing 747 flight with a 6 weekly SYD-DFW-SYD A380 flight, with no service on Tuesdays.

The new QF7/8 will take flight from Monday 29-September-2014

To facilitate this the mix of A380s and B747s on the SYD-HKG services will change.

Qantas have also retimed their QF9/10 MEL-DXB-LHR-DXB-MEL flights from Sunday 20-July-2014 with QF9 now departing MEL at 2255 and QF10 returning to MEL at 2055+2

Qantas are spruiking the fact the retimed arrival into LHR will now offer passengers onwards connections to 17 european destinations in under 4 hours transit time, compared to the previous 4.

Its another sad day for spotters in Brisbane who from September will be down to the daily B744 flight to Los Angeles as the only scheduled B747 flight into the airport.  With Qantas replacing the B747 on it SIN route with an A333.  However we should still see the odd freight charter, and possibly a last Air New Zealand B744 on a NZ135/136 if they need to up-guage capacity, but this is unlikely with their retirement so close.

Below is a video released by Qantas to promote the new A380 service to Dallas, it is presented by Qantas head of International engineering Alan Milne

You can read the full Qantas media release HERE

Qantas have also released a fact sheet about the QF7/8 changes HERE

ZQN after dark

After years of trials, tests and even a few close calls, and the trial of a Pacific Blue pilot who took off after sunset, Queenstown Airport will now be allowed take off and landings after dark thanks to RNPAR.

Queenstown now has consent for flights until 10pm.  This means currently only flights in Summer (during Daylight Saving) will be able to land late due to the lack of suitable runway lighting, however the airport will look at this.

It is expiated it could cost up to $10M NZD to upgrade the runway, taxiway, approach path and off airport lighting as well as widen the runway from 30m to 45m.

Flights wanting to take advantage of the evening arrivals aren't likely to start until winter 2016 and will need to operate under the strict RNPAR conditions.

Queenstown Airport have released an excellent video which showcases how the RNPAR (Required Navigational Performance Authroisation Required) flights work. (below) there is also a NZ Herald article on this HERE

VA Half Year result in the middle ground

After the highs of alliance partner Air New Zealand and the lows of opponent Qantas, Virgin Australia have today announced a "middle ground" position with their Half Year financial results.

While still announcing a statutory after tax loss of $83.7M AUD in comparison with Qantas, Virgin are in no way a loser with this result.

Virgin Australia has progressed with the integration of Skywest, continuing to align resources, systems and processes, and has worked closely with joint venture partner Tiger Airways Holdings Limited (Tigerair) to improve the performance of Tiger Airways Australia Pty Limited (Tigerair Australia). 

The integration of Skywest into the Virgin Australia Regional brand continues with this entity able to charter Virgin Australia jets to operate FIFO and other charter work especially in the WA mining areas.  VA Regional will also take delivery of at least 6 new ATR 72-600 aircraft by the end of the 2015 Calendar year. 

In the six months of the VA/TigerAir venture TigerAir has had an increase in passenger numbers of 3.5%, with a 4.5% increase in Load Factor and aircraft utilisation has increased by 12.7%

Read the Virgin Australia release to the ASX HERE

Half Year Interim Results The Winners and the Losers

The Winner

Air New Zealand are the big winners today announcing a half year interim normalised earnings of $180M NZD and an increase in passenger revenue, as well as a pre tax Statutory earnings of $197M NZD

The Loser

Qantas have today announced their underlying half year loss of $252M AUD before tax, with an action plan that will see job losses, fleet changes, and sale of terminal leases.

The Qantas changes
Qantas have announced that they have entered an agreement which will see the Brisbane Airport Corporation regain the lease of the Qantas Domestic terminal at Brisbane and related assets for $112M AUD.

Over the next three years Qantas will reduce their workforce by 5000 full-time positions which will include a reduction of 1500 management and non-operational roles, a restructure of line maintenance, as well as the already announced closure of the Avalon maintenance base and Adelaide catering base.  There will also be a reduction of operational roles relating to fleet and network changes, and the CNS flight crew base will close.

Qantas will make a change in timing to their MEL-DXB-LHR services from November 2014 to reduce on ground timing of the A380 in LHR.

Qantas will also end their PER-SIN services in first quarter FY15, while making all BNE-SIN and SYD-SIN services A330 replacing current B744 services.

Fleet Changes

Qantas will look to make savings up selling and differing up to 50 jets, this is broken up as follows;

• Boeing 767-300s - these will all be retired by Q3 FY15, following on from the retirement of the Boeing 737-400 fleet (see previous post)
• This will help Qantas standardise their domestic fleet to mostly 737-800 aircraft with Airbus A330 aircraft flying the East-West flights (SYD/MEL/BNE-PER) as well as peak services on the golden triangle (BNE/MEL/SYD) allowing the A332 fleet to operate International routes replacing B744s
• The 6 non-reconfigured Boeing 747-400 aircraft will be retired by the 2nd half of FY16 leaving just the 9 B744s with the A380 interior product.
• Deferral of the 8 remaining A380 orders (again)
• Deferral of the last 3 JQ B787-8 orders
• Restructring of the JQ A320 order book

Air New Zealand however will be adding aircraft;

• The A320 fleet will grow by 4 in FY14, 3 in FY15 and 2 in FY16 with the B733 retirements continuting with only 7 remaining in FY14, 2 in FY15 and all gone by FY16
• The B787-9s will arrive as follows FY15 3, FY16 3, FY17 2, FY18 2 this allows 3 of the B763 fleet to be retired by FY16 with the remaining 2 leaving in FY 17, while the last 2 744s will depart in FY15
• Two additional B773's will be delivered in FY15, 1 in 2014 and 1 in 2015
• 1 ATR76 will arrive in FY14, 3 in FY15 and the final one in FY16

The Releases

You can read the Qantas release to the ASX HERE and the Air New Zealand release to the NZX HERE, this story is also covered in almost every newspaper and website around.