Corporate Travel News For South Pacific

Auckland Airport, via its official Twitter account, advised (25-May-2017) of "substantial delays and cancellations" for domestic services due to low visibility conditions caused by heavy fog. As of 11:15 on 25-May-2017, around 70 services were affected by the morning fog with 34 cancellations (Stuff/NZ Herald, 25-May-2017).

Air New Zealand announced (24-May-2017) an updated Fuel Hedge Disclosure as at 19-May-2017 for the period of Apr-2017 to Jun-2018. Estimations include:

• Q4FY2017: 82% of its estimated fuel consumption 1,987,865;
• Q1FY2018: 75% of 2,268,475;
• Q2FY2018: 45% of 2,292,558;
• Q4FY2018: 6% of 2,037,080;
• H2FY2017: 80% of 4,243,443;
• H1FY2018: 75% of 4,497,174;
• H2FY2018: 27% of 4,329,638. [more - original PR]

Air New Zealand passenger numbers up 7% - traffic highlights for Apr-2017:

• Passengers: 1.3 million, +6.6% year-on-year;
  • Short haul: 1.1 million, +7.0%;
  • Domestic: 849,000, +6.7%;
  • Tasman/Pacific: 283,000, +7.9%;
  • Long haul: 153,000, +3.2%;
  • North America/UK: 92,000, -0.7%;
  • Asia/Japan/Singapore: 61,000, -1.2%;
• Passenger load factor: 85.2%, +2.6ppts;
  • Asia/Japan/Singapore: 88.9%, +4.5ppts;
  • Long haul: 87.5%, +4.4ppts;
  • North America/UK: 86.7%, +4.4ppts;
  • Domestic: 83.7%, +0.8ppt;
  • Short haul: 82.6%, +0.7ppt;
  • Tasman/Pacific: 82.0%, +0.6ppt. [more - original PR]

Air New Zealand: "For the financial year to date, Short Haul passenger revenue per ASK (RASK)* decreased 4.8% and Long Haul RASK* decreased 14.3%. Removing the impact of foreign exchange, Group-wide RASK* decreased 7.5%, and Group-wide yields for the financial year to date decreased 5.9% on the same period last year." Source: Company statement, 24-May-2017.

Qantas anticipates the new London-Perth nonstop service will deliver AUD70 million (USD52.5 million) a year boost to the Western Australia (WA) economy (The West Australian, 24-May-2017). Qantas WA regional manager Julian Barry stated: "The whole idea of the new service is to generate tourism and, rather than have people flying into Perth and flying to other States, actually staying in Western Australia and exploring the State". Qantas also announced that the success of the nonstop service will determine if additional regional services are added. Mr Barry continued: "If we have more people travelling into Perth, we will obviously look at the opportunity to create more services regionally".

Tourism Fiji and Fiji Airways announced a new partnership aimed at showcasing Fiji's culture and scenery through video, images and social media, to strengthen market relations with India (Fiji Times, 24-May-2017). In the first phase of the campaign, both organisations will host Bollywood actress Ileana D'Cruz and a Times of India film crew who will capture her exploring different aspects of Fiji's tourism products. Images and content from the visit would be published in the ET Panache Travel, the travel supplement of Economic Times and amplified on the publication's social media platforms.

New Zealand's Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) released (24-May-2017) tourism spending data for Apr-2017 showing that tourism expenditure increased in all regions throughout New Zealand. Key highlights of the report include:

• The fastest growing regions were: West Coast, which increased 12% over the year to Apr-2017 to NZD524 million (USD368 million); Nelson, up 10% to NZD346 million (USD243 million); and Tasman, up 10% to NZD307 million (USD215 million);
• After the earthquakes in Nov-2016, North Canterbury's spending for the month of Apr-2017 has returned to the same level as Apr-2016. However, spending for North Canterbury is still down year ending Apr-2017 year on year;
• US visitor spending again continued its strong upward trend, increasing 23% over the year to Apr-2017. [more - original PR]

Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF) released (24-May-2017) recommendations to the Tasmanian Government to increase funding for Tourism Tasmania to invest in destination marketing and grow domestic and international demand for travel to Tasmania. TTF CEO Margy Osmond stated the funding boost is one of six recommendations the organisation has put forward ahead of the Tasmanian Government's 2017/18 Budget to further develop tourism as a key long-term driver of economic and jobs growth. Ms Osmond also urged the Tasmanian Government to support cultural and heritage tourism, invest in nature-based tourism infrastructure and grow funding to attract business and major events to Tasmania. [more - original PR]

Aviation Australia announced (24-May-2017) a cooperative partnership agreement with the Jakarta Aviation Training Centre (JATC) for the delivery of aircraft maintenance engineering training to Indonesian students. Training will be delivered at JATC's campus, located next to the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta, as well as Aviation Australia's campus located next to the Brisbane International Airport. Aviation Australia CEO Bill Horrocks stated Indonesia is a very important player in the global aviation industry and has experienced massive growth over the past decade. [more - original PR]

Qantas and Australia Post introduced (24-May-2017) a Boeing 737-400F aircraft in StarTrack livery. The aircraft has capacity for 16.5 tonnes of cargo and is the largest in the dedicated domestic network of six aircraft operating for Australia Post and StarTrack customers. The delivery forms part of a five year contract worth more than AUD500 million (USD375 million) for the transport of Australia Post and StarTrack products and services, which includes priority access to capacity in Qantas Group's passenger fleet. Australia Post Group COO and StarTrack CEO Bob Black said "This new aircraft is the largest type of freighter aircraft operating scheduled services in Australia and gives us greater capacity and flexibility". [more - original PR]

Airservices Australia commenced (24-May-2017) industry consultation on the viability of designing and installing a long range air traffic flow management (LR-ATFM) System for Australia's airspace. LR-ATFM is expected to deliver reduced aircraft fuel burn, increased air traffic predictability and reduced controller workload. Airservices has been applying a limited form of LR-ATFM at Sydney and Perth, largely based on procedures and manual interaction. Airservices highlighted there are "currently no demonstrated technology based LR-ATFM systems operating in the world". Airservices ATM service manager Paddy Goodall said the concept would be designed to integrate international flights into the current ATM network management process, to bring a more orderly flow of arrivals at the four major airports. Airservices plans to launch a Market Sounding Information Request through AusTender by early Jun-2017. [more - original PR]