News for South Pacific

Air New Zealand launched (24-May-2017) a new lounge at Palmerston North Airport. Situated on the first floor of the terminal, the new lounge offers seating for more than 100 passengers, almost double the capacity of the previous space. Air New Zealand GM customer experience Anita Hawthorne stated "the new lounge has been designed to enhance the regional flying experience and we look forward to welcoming customers travelling out of Palmerston North to enjoy this new facility". The new lounge forms part of Air New Zealand’s four year NZD100 million (USD70.2 million) programme to develop its network of lounges. [more - original PR]

Milestone Aviation Group and GE Capital Aviation Services opened (22-May-2017) a new office in Sydney, Australia, effective 01-May-2017. Milestone EVP commercial Robert Dranitzke stated: "With our new office in place and our continued focus on providing customised financing solutions to our Australian customers, we are expecting exponential growth in the next few years". Milestone Aviation senior VP commercial Antony Snelleman, who will head the new office stated "we are excited to grow our footprint in the Australia market, and we look forward to increasing our business with our fixed- and rotor-wing partners". [more - original PR]

Queensland Airports Limited (QAL) CEO Chris Mills stated (22-May-2017) high passenger numbers during school holidays and Easter reflects the strength of leisure markets across airports under its management. QAL owns and operates Gold Coast, Townsville, Mount Isa and Longreach airports. The company posted its record highest April passenger traffic in Apr-2017, with a total of 711,193 passengers representing a 7% year-on-year increase. [more - original PR]

Solomon Airlines plans to launch weekly Honiara–Tarawa service in partnership with Air Kiribati (Routes Online, 22-May-2017). The service, scheduled from 12-Jul-2017, will be operated with A320 aircraft. 

China Eastern Airlines reportedly visited Perth Airport to review the possibility of launching daily Shanghai Pudong-Perth service (Perth Now, 20-May-2017). China Eastern Australia manager Kathy Zhang stated the carrier was "exploring the possibility of the direct services, however it has not been decided yet".

Cook Islands Ministry of Finance & Economic Management reported (22-May-2017) visitor arrivals reached 13,246 in Apr-2017. Details include:

• Visitor arrivals: 13,246, +16.7% year-on-year;
  • New Zealand: 8649, +11.5%;
  • Australia: 1969, +9.1%;
  • US: 879, +79.8%;
  • Canada: 332, +91.9%. [more - original PR]

Tourism Australia released the second phase of its Great Australian Airfare Sale 2.0 initiative (Financial Express, 22-May-2017). The campaign is in partnership with eight leading carriers including Air India, Air Asia, Cathay Pacific, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Scoot, Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways, and is designed to boost tourism from India to Australia. Tourism Australia country manager India & Gulf Nishant Kashikar said Tourism Australia will continue to partner and work closely with airline partners to accelerate market demand and create more enticing opportunities encouraging Indians to visit Australia.

New Zealand Post opened (22-May-2017) the 14,600sqm Southern Operations Centre at Christchurch International Airport's Dakota Park on 22-May-2017. The NZD8 million (USD5.6 million) facility houses courier, air and road freight operations and serves as an overnight courier, parcels, processing and distribution hub for New Zealand's South Island. The building has capacity for up to 6000 parcels per hour and support 14 air movements per day. New Zealand Post Group's lease with Christchurch Airport for the facility runs to 2026, with options to extend. [more - original PR - NZ Post] [more - original PR - Christchurch Airport]

Air New Zealand announced (22-May-2017) a partnership with Visit Sunshine Coast and Tourism & Events Queensland to coincide with the launch of nonstop seasonal service Auckland-Sunshine Coast. The four times weekly service is available 07-Jul-2017 to 29-Oct-2017, and will be supported by a nationwide promotional campaign titled, 'Sunshine by Lunchtime' launched 22-May-2017. Air New Zealand chief revenue officer Cam Wallace stated the popularity of the Sunshine Coast as a destination has been growing steadily with the services now available for a sixth season. Sunshine Coast Airport GM Peter Pallot stated: "The annual Air New Zealand services have gone from strength to strength with passenger numbers increasing year on year as visitor awareness grows". [more - original PR]

Australia Department of Immigration and Border Protection explained (22-May-2017) the SITA advanced passenger processing system used by a number of airports across Australia and New Zealand was temporarily down due to "external system outage". SITA stated the outage was due to a "network connectivity issue....caused by a major telecom failure in the UK of a top provider to our datacentre". Among the airports affected include Sydney Airport, Melbourne Tullamarine Airport, Wellington Airport and Auckland Airport. [more - original PR]