Air Nelson
| File:Air Nelson Logo.jpg | |||||||
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| Founded | 1979 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hubs | Auckland Airport Wellington International Airport Christchurch International Airport | ||||||
| Frequent-flyer program | Airpoints | ||||||
| Alliance | Star Alliance | ||||||
| Fleet size | 23 | ||||||
| Destinations | 15 | ||||||
| Parent company | Air New Zealand | ||||||
| Headquarters | Nelson, New Zealand | ||||||
| Key people | Darin Stringer (GM Air Nelson) Rob Fyfe (CEO Air New Zealand) | ||||||
| Website | http://www.airnelson.com | ||||||
Air Nelson, a subsidiary of Air New Zealand is a regional airline based in Nelson, New Zealand. It operates services on provincial routes under the Air New Zealand Link brand. Its main base is Nelson Airport, with hubs at Auckland, Napier, New Plymouth, Wellington, Tauranga and Christchurch.
The airline operates one type of aircraft, the 50 seat Bombardier Q300. This has allowed parent company, Air New Zealand to provide an intensive regional air service that cannot be sustained with regional jet types of this size. Until 2008, Air Nelson operated the 33-seat Saab 340 that took over provincial Fokker F27 services by Air New Zealand in 1990.
Air Nelson Q300s wear the Air New Zealand livery and operate from Kerikeri in the far north of the North Island to Invercargill in the far south of the South Island.[1]
History
The airline was established and started operations in 1979. It was founded by Robert Inglis and Nicki Smith who later sold the airline to Air New Zealand. It has 417 employees (at March 2007).[1]
As a small commuter airline, Air Nelson operated in the top half of the South Island linking Nelson and Wellington with up to half-hourly services. Also providing isolated towns such as Takaka and Motueka with a convenient safe service to the outside world. During this time aircraft ranged in type from - Piper PA-31 Navajo, Fairchild Metro, and Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante.
Growth
In 1986, Air New Zealand announced it would start to scale back its Fokker F27 operations and smaller regional centres were the first affected. Air Nelson aircraft immediately replaced the F27 on those routes. Air Nelson grew their network at the same time and started operating non-stop service to Auckland, complementing F27 services. Air New Zealand also purchased a stake in Air Nelson (and Eagle Airway) to secure the airline's support when deregulation saw the arrival of Ansett Airways.
Destinations
Air Nelson serve the following as of March 2012:
- From Auckland
- From Christchurch
- From Wellington
New Era
Saab 340
1990 was a significant year for Air Nelson as in August that year, Air New Zealand suspended all F27 services. Air Nelson responded by introducing a popular type, the Saab 340. Up until 1992, the Saab 340 wore Air Nelson colours, but when Air New Zealand bought the airline outright (having also taken over Eagle Airways and Mount Cook Airlines), all Air Nelson's fleet wore Air New Zealand's 'Link' livery.
The Saab fleet soon grew to one of the largest in the world at that time and Air Nelson divested itself of its smaller aircraft operating only the Saab. This was in line with the policy of parent company Air New Zealand's desire to rationalising the overall cost of fleet maintenance. Eagle Airways soon operated a fleet of Beechcraft 1900Ds, while Mount Cook Airlines operated the ATR 72-500.
Larger Aircraft
Bombardier Q300
During October 2004 the airline announced that it was replacing its fleet of seventeen Saab 340As with seventeen Bombardier Dash 8 Q300 aircraft, with options for another ten Dash 8 Q300 and thirteen Dash 8 Q400 aircraft although the latter aircraft options have been dropped.[2] The last Saab 340A aircraft had been withdrawn from service by the end of 2007. The company now has 23 Dash 8 Q300 aircraft. Air Nelson is the largest singular operator of the Q300 outside Canada.[3]
New Services and Expansion
Now considered the main subsidiary of the regional domestic air fleet, Air Nelson is used as the provincial face of Air New Zealand. The increase in fleet size allowed for Air New Zealand to start pioneering longer distant provincial routes which were considered sustainable with a 50 seat aircraft, such as Wellington - Invercargill, New Plymouth - Christchurch, and Tauranga - Christchurch. Air New Zealand has also used the Q300 to ramp up a more intensive high-frequency regional service allowing more departure choices. A new route, Paraparaumu – Auckland started on Labour Weekend, October 2011. It was contingent on Paraparaumu Airport's new temporary terminal being completed and runway refurbished. Issues with re-manning the control tower caused a major delay. This new route had been due to begin in 2009.
The Hokitika – Christchurch route joined the Air Nelson network as a result of the Pike River coal mine disaster in November 2010 when Air New Zealand added capacity to the Westland town. This became permanent in February 2011 when subsidiary operator, Air National was grounded by the NZCAA due to irregularities with operating practises. The larger aircraft has proved popular on peak services to the West Coast airport which also serves the town of Greymouth.
The Future
Bombardier has ceased building turboprop aircraft apart from the larger Q400, choosing to focus on its Regional Jet family and upcoming C-Series twinjets. This has left Air Nelson with the only option of purchasing the Q400 or low-houred secondhand Q300 types. In March 2010, Air New Zealand suspended the option for Air Nelson to take up purchase rights of the higher speed 70-seat Q400, fearing an interservice rivalry with the slower ATR 72-500s of Mount Cook Airline. Air Nelson had hoped to pioneer a long distant turboprop service connecting Invercargill - Auckland or Rotorua - Queenstown nonstop as the economical high-speed Q400 would have allowed.
Bombardier has announced the development of the Q400X, a stretched 90 - 100 seat development of the Q400. Air New Zealand has taken an interest in this development as the need for a fast turboprop of this size will be needed to enhance provincial routes within the next five years. Bombardier expects the first of this new airliner will be flying by 2013-14.[4]
In April 2010, parent company Air New Zealand, in a surprise announcement, transferred heavy maintenance of Mount Cook Airline's ATR 72-500 fleet to Air Nelson's new facilities in its hometown of Nelson. This was caused by the need for more room at the parent company's maintenance base at Christchurch Airport to allow the expansion of the IAE and Pratt and Whitney engine care centre. This also allowed the closure of the minor turbo prop department at the Safe Air maintenance facilities in Blenheim, with staff being transferred to Nelson.[5]
Fleet
| Aircraft | Total | Orders | Passengers (Economy) |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bombardier DHC-8-Q300 | 23[3] | 0 | 50 |
Accidents
- On 30 September 2010, Air New Zealand subsidiary Air Nelson Flight 8841 was flying from Wellington International Airport to Nelson Airport but was diverted to Blenheim due to bad weather in Nelson. On landing, the front landing gear on the Dash 8 Series 300 collapsed. The aircraft stopped successfully on the forward section of its fuselage and all 46 passengers and 3 crew members left the aircraft uninjured. The aircraft registration number was ZK-NEB.
- A similar incident on 9 February 2011 saw an Air Nelson Q300 flying from Hamilton to Wellington diverted to Blenheim when the nose wheel failed to deploy. The plane made a successful nose down landing with none of the 44 passengers injured.[6] It was later determined that the pilots failed to release the uplock lever with the necessary pressure for the landing gear to release.[7]
References
- ^ a b "Directory: World Airlines". Flight International. 2007-03-27. pp. 63–64.
- ^ Pacific Wings Magazine, April 2010
- ^ a b NZ CAA list of Air Nelson DHC-8 Q300 aircraft. Retrieved: 11 December 2009
- ^ Bombardier Aerospace
- ^ Waikato Times May 2010
- ^ "Plane makes emergency landing in Blenheim". TV3 News. 9 February 2011. Retrieved 9 February 2011.
- ^ "Nose-first landing due to pilots 'not pulling lever hard enough'". Sydney Morning Herald. 7 February 2013. Retrieved 7 February 2013.
External links
- Official website Transclusion error: {{En}} is only for use in File namespace. Use {{langx|en}} or {{in lang|en}} instead.