Air New Zealand is firmly in expansion mode as it celebrates its 75th anniversary. Its latest growth cycle began last year, and the carrier expects to spend NZ$3 billion (US$2.3 billion) on new aircraft by 2020. Scheduled deliveries will increase capacity nearly 12% for the six months through June - a growth rate enabled by the carrier's continued run of healthy profits.
In its domestic operation, Air New Zealand will this year complete the replacement of older Boeing 737s with Airbus A320s, and will progressively retire its Beechcraft 1900Ds as much larger ATR 72-600s are delivered. The international fleet, meanwhile, will be boosted by the arrival of additional Boeing 787-9s.
The carrier is set to receive three more 787s by the end of December, joining the three that arrived in the second half of 2014. A total of 12 will be delivered through 2018. The aircraft are intended to replace Air New Zealand's five remaining Boeing 767s, but since some of the 767s will remain in the fleet for a few more years, the 787s will create additional widebody capacity for network growth.
Much of the international expansion is in Asian markets, where capacity is set to rise 22% in the first half of the year. Services to Tokyo have increased, and the airline launched a route to Singapore in January to build on its new partnership with Singapore Airlines.
Another major addition will be a route to Buenos Aires, beginning in December. This service has huge potential for Air New Zealand, CEO Christopher Luxon told Aviation Week recently. Buenos Aires is a strong market in its own right, and Air New Zealand is also looking to connect traffic from Australia and Southeast Asia to South America. Because of New Zealand's geographical position, these are some of the few international transit flows that are viable through the Auckland hub.
Luxon notes that while Asian cities north of Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China, tend to have good connecting options to South America, cities farther south have few. If Southeast Asian countries have air service agreements with Argentina, Air New Zealand will be able to link them to South America. A codeshare with Aerolineas Argentinas will provide onward service to Brazil.
Australia, too, will be a good source of traffic for Air New Zealand's Buenos Aires flights, Luxon predicts. The airline has routes to several Australian cities from Auckland, and will be able to offer one-stop service from these points to Buenos Aires.
Air New Zealand will initially offer three flights a week on this route, although Luxon says the intention is to increase this to daily service. The airline will fly its Boeing 777-200ERs on the route, as they have the right ratio of premium seats for this market - more than in its 787-9s, but less than in its 777-300ERs.
Boosting its U.S. network is also on Air New Zealand's radar. Luxon says the airline is likely to add a third U.S. gateway, but is still analyzing which city will work best.
The main aim of the new destination will be to pull in connecting traffic from different areas of the U.S. Air New Zealand flies to Los Angeles and San Francisco, but it wants to improve its feed from the Eastern Seaboard. Some travelers are deterred by the prospect of a transcontinental flight followed by a transpacific flight, so connecting at a city closer to the East Coast could be a more attractive option, Luxon notes.
On the domestic side, the carrier is increasing capacity through the introduction of larger aircraft types. The A320s have 26% more seats than the Boeing 737-300s they are replacing, and the arrival of ATR 72-600s will allow the retirement of the 19-seat Beechcraft 1900Ds, which are the smallest aircraft in the carrier's fleet.
Two new A320s were delivered in February, another is due by the end of June, and two more are scheduled to arrive by September. These additions will give Air New Zealand 15 A320s in domestic configuration. It also has 13 in international configuration, which are due to be replaced by A320neos and A321neos beginning in 2017.
Air New Zealand has now reduced its 737 fleet to four, with all of these aircraft expected to be phased out by September.
In the turboprop fleet, the airline plans to use its ATR 72-600s to replace Bombardier Q300s on some routes, and they in turn will take over most of the 1900D flights.
However, some of the 1900D regional routes do not have enough demand to justify the larger turboprops, so will be discontinued. Three cities -- Kaitaia, Westport and Whakatane -- will lose service altogether.
Air New Zealand has six ATR 72-600s and 11 ATR 72-500s, and seven more -600s are due to be delivered by the end of July 2016. Two of them are expected to arrive by year-end.
The airline has 16 1900Ds, with five to be retired by year-end and the remainder by August 2016.
Much of the international expansion is in Asian markets, where capacity is set to rise 22% in the first half of the year. Services to Tokyo have increased, and the airline launched a route to Singapore in January to build on its new partnership with Singapore Airlines.
Another major addition will be a route to Buenos Aires, beginning in December. This service has huge potential for Air New Zealand, CEO Christopher Luxon told Aviation Week recently. Buenos Aires is a strong market in its own right, and Air New Zealand is also looking to connect traffic from Australia and Southeast Asia to South America. Because of New Zealand's geographical position, these are some of the few international transit flows that are viable through the Auckland hub.
Luxon notes that while Asian cities north of Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China, tend to have good connecting options to South America, cities farther south have few. If Southeast Asian countries have air service agreements with Argentina, Air New Zealand will be able to link them to South America. A codeshare with Aerolineas Argentinas will provide onward service to Brazil.
Australia, too, will be a good source of traffic for Air New Zealand's Buenos Aires flights, Luxon predicts. The airline has routes to several Australian cities from Auckland, and will be able to offer one-stop service from these points to Buenos Aires.
Air New Zealand will initially offer three flights a week on this route, although Luxon says the intention is to increase this to daily service. The airline will fly its Boeing 777-200ERs on the route, as they have the right ratio of premium seats for this market - more than in its 787-9s, but less than in its 777-300ERs.
Boosting its U.S. network is also on Air New Zealand's radar. Luxon says the airline is likely to add a third U.S. gateway, but is still analyzing which city will work best.
The main aim of the new destination will be to pull in connecting traffic from different areas of the U.S. Air New Zealand flies to Los Angeles and San Francisco, but it wants to improve its feed from the Eastern Seaboard. Some travelers are deterred by the prospect of a transcontinental flight followed by a transpacific flight, so connecting at a city closer to the East Coast could be a more attractive option, Luxon notes.
On the domestic side, the carrier is increasing capacity through the introduction of larger aircraft types. The A320s have 26% more seats than the Boeing 737-300s they are replacing, and the arrival of ATR 72-600s will allow the retirement of the 19-seat Beechcraft 1900Ds, which are the smallest aircraft in the carrier's fleet.
Two new A320s were delivered in February, another is due by the end of June, and two more are scheduled to arrive by September. These additions will give Air New Zealand 15 A320s in domestic configuration. It also has 13 in international configuration, which are due to be replaced by A320neos and A321neos beginning in 2017.
Air New Zealand has now reduced its 737 fleet to four, with all of these aircraft expected to be phased out by September.
In the turboprop fleet, the airline plans to use its ATR 72-600s to replace Bombardier Q300s on some routes, and they in turn will take over most of the 1900D flights.
However, some of the 1900D regional routes do not have enough demand to justify the larger turboprops, so will be discontinued. Three cities -- Kaitaia, Westport and Whakatane -- will lose service altogether.
Air New Zealand has six ATR 72-600s and 11 ATR 72-500s, and seven more -600s are due to be delivered by the end of July 2016. Two of them are expected to arrive by year-end.
The airline has 16 1900Ds, with five to be retired by year-end and the remainder by August 2016.
AVIATION WEEK
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