NZFF

Splitpin wrote:Well , that's good .... positive signs for the economy.
Would have been nice if they had looked at a similar sized jet , but still good.

2013
Well, interesting discussion. Where to start? First off, the ATR72-500 is the most fuel efficient aircraft in the ANZ stable and basically makes money hand over fist compared to Q300, B737... The -600 with its later model PW127M engines are even more fuel efficient. A B737 between CHC-WLG will burn 2.5t of fuel for 133 pax and it's a 35min flight. 2 x ATR's carrying 136 pax will burn 1.2t between them and take just 10mins longer in flight. The plan is to replace jets on the Chc-WLG route with higher frequency ATR's.

From what I remember, when AirNSN was looking for a Saab replacement, Bombardier basically threw the Q300's at AirNZ at a super cheap price and AirNZ couldn't afford to turn it down. ATR weren't in a discount mood as their machines were and still are selling well, so didn't have to give away money to make a sale. So basically it came down to $$$.

When considering the extra turbo-prop airframe, ( it wasn't a fleet replacement, it was expansion, so could've gone either way with a Dash or ATR) they seriously looked at the Q400 which was the only Dash in production as the AirNSN got the last of the 300's. Its positives was it's speed and capacity. It had jet like cruise speeds @ 360kts TAS and could carry up to 78 pax(?), but it was super hungry on the fuel, and at the time of consideration, fuel had doubled in price. My boss at the time told me that if the decision had been made 6months earlier, it would've been the Q400 as fuel wasn't such a consideration and speed would have won out.

The flexibility of having different size aircraft to better match a specific route is quite important. There's no point in having 1 fleet of ATR's and flying a route that only demands a 19-seater, even at peak periods. What we are seeing now is AirNZ is strategicaly up or down guaging a/c on routes as demand requires it. So gone are the days where Eagle, Nelson and Cook had their own territories and now youre seeing the likes of Q300's taking over the AKL-GIS route (traditionally an Eagle route) and Mt Cook doing more and more AKL-NSN/NPL/NPE flights, which are AirNSN routes.

What AirNZ really want is an aircraft in the 90-110 seat category. When the B737's are phased out in 2016, there'll be a huge capacity gap between the ATR @ 68seats and the A320 with 171 seats. AirNZ has been haranguing ATR and Bombardier to get a 90 seat turbo-prop off the drawing board, apparently ATR have a design that they will pursue when the -600 program has settled. It's said to have a 3-2 seat config and underfloor baggage space, and the airbus cockpit with side stick controls. Pratt&Whitney supposedly have a 6-7000shp engine on the test bed which is designed in mind for the 90-100 seat turboprop.

chopper_nut wrote:just worry about making money.