Air Asia X farewell - addition

Thanks to Matt H we can provide the following great shots of 9M-XXA marking Air Asia X's final departure from Christchurch 31 May:-

Plus Matt has provided this shot from last winter when an aircraft was stuck at Christchurch for a couple of days due snow!

Boeing 787 departs

Concluding our extensive coverage of the second visit of a Boeing 787-8 to New Zealand, bizjetboy has sent in some snaps of it leaving Auckland 31 May on its way to Darwin.

In other 787 news, and again thanks to bizjetboy, some will recall United's intent to flying the type on a new route Houston-Auckland-Houston.  The following is an extract from :
http://www.click2houston.com/news/United-letter-to-employees-on-international-flights-from-Hobby/-/1735978/14327280/-/k6855jz/-/index.html

We expect to begin a 10 percent reduction in planned IAH capacity beginning with the fall 2012 schedule change. We have been maintaining some unprofitable flying at IAH based on our projections that future growth at the hub would make those routes profitable. Since that growth won’t occur, because there will be less international connecting traffic at IAH, we will have to reallocate that flying where it can earn a profit. The rest of the reduction will come from future planned capacity, including not flying our previously announced service from IAH to Auckland, New Zealand. That flight was heavily dependent on connecting traffic through IAH. As a result of the Mayor’s and the Council’s action, it will no longer be economically feasible to fly the 787 on that route, since there will be a drain on international traffic from IAH.

Dreamliner flight to Christchurch, New Zealand

NZ Farewell's Air Asia X

Sadly, after a little over 12 months of operation, Malaysian low cost carrier Air Asia X (IATA D7/ICAO XAX - Xanadu) terminated services through its only NZ port, Christchurch, from 31 May with the final flights (D7-282/D7-283) from/to Kuala Lumpur being flown by Airbus A330-343 9M-XXA.  

9M-XXA arriving at Christchurch on 12 April 2011, Glen R photo

Planning for the commencement of services to Christchurch began in 2010 and after the adverse effects of the devastating earthquakes in Christchurch early 2011 many commentators questioned if the airline would continue with plans to operate to the city. 

However the positive move was made to continue with these plans and the first flight arrived shortly before midnight on the night of 01 April with Airbus A330-343 9M-XXH as D7-2754 and left 90 minutes later on its return to Kuala Lumpur as D7-2755.  The four times per week service were initially a mix of night and daytime turn-a-rounds.

The first daylight visit for the carrier took place on 06 April with 9M-XXG, Graeme W was on hand to catch its arrival:

The carrier experienced little in the way of disruptions to their Christchurch foray with the exception of

9M-XXE arriving on 24 July 2011 and being stranded by snow until 26 July.

9M-XXF is known to have made one visit wearing these special decals in April 2012, thanks to Tony M for these photos

And a reminder for those who follow such things, Aerolineas Argentinas will suspend its thrice weekly service through Auckland with final flights scheduled for 30 June. 

More from the 787 visit

Seems there is little else happening around the traps when it comes to aviation in New Zealand - the 787 has thankfully captivated everybody's attention so without further ado herewith a continuation of the photographic coverage of her visit to Christchurch:

First three photos thanks to Matt H and the remaining photos thanks to Craig C

South Island debut for the Dreamliner

Boeing demonstrator 787-8 N787BX arrived at Christchurch shortly after 10am this morning following a 1hr 10 min flight from Auckland marking the types first visit to the South Island.

Above and below, Graham W photos

Above and below, Craig C photos

A couple more of N787BX

The arrival of Boeing 787-8 N787BX at Auckland 29 May attracted a large crowd of onlookers as did the first visit of its type back in November 2011.

Noel J was well positioned to capture these great shots of its arrival:

King Air 200 N635SF - update 14 June

2004 model Beech 200 King Air N635SF arrived at Auckland direct from Sydney with a flight time of 4hr 45min.   After clearing formalities the King Air made the short hop to Ardmore where it was inducted for pre delivery maintenance with Hawker Pacific.  This aircraft is the first of five "new" glass cockpit examples to be leased by Hawker Pacific to the RNZAF replacing the current fleet leased from Aeromotive of Hamilton. 

This example arrived at Broome from Jakarta/Halim on 27 May and 28 May saw it head for Alice Springs and Sydney but favourable winds saw the aircraft fly direct to Sydney at the hands of respected ferry company, Range Flyers.

http://www.aviationbusinessindex.com/aircraft_details.asp?aircraft_id=30698&comp_id=221839

The aircraft was registered to Hawker Pacific on 14 June as ZK-KHP (King Air Hawker Pacific).

Above and below at Auckland, Noel J photos

Arriving at Ardmore, Colin H photo

Dreamliner N787BX at Auckland

Boeing 787-8 N787BX touched down to a cool, blustery Auckland just after 3pm 29 May after the short flight from Sydney as “Boeing 787 Experimental”.  The 787 had been based at Sydney the last few days having arrived direct from Boeing Field 24 May.  On 26 May the Dreamliner made a visit to Brisbane followed the next day by a trip to Melbourne and back.

N787BX will spend the day at Christchurch 30 May with it planned to be on the ground from 10am until 5.30pm before departing Auckland for Darwin on the morning of 31 May.

Bizjet Update

SE Asian based Challenger 605 N880HK arrived at Auckland late morning on 27 May from Macau via a techstop at Darwin.  It last visited Auckland in November last year.

Wayne G photo

Falcon 7X VP-BZE departed Wellington late 28 May for Papeete.

Whisper returns home

Vincent Aviation's BAe 146-200 ZK-ECO has returned to NZ after a couple of months plying the skies of Australia.  Back on 09 March the 146 left Wellington for Queenstown and Sydney and during the following months it is known to have visited (in order of first time visited) - Hamilton Island, Adelaide, Hobart, Essendon, Tullamarine, Ayres Rock, Kununurra, Broome, Katherine, Cairns, Wagga Wagga, Albury, Cooma, Canberra, Longreach, Darwin, Alice Springs and Broken Hill with some locations visited more than once.

It made the Tasman crossing back to Wellington direct from Sydney on the afternoon of 27 May.

As reported at 3rd Level NZ last week, the whisperjet is expected to visit Hokitika in mid June.
http://3rdlevelnz.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/whisper-westward-bound.html

Wellington 05 March 2012, Michael L photo

Falcon 7X VP-BZE heads south

As posted yesterday, Flying Stork's Falcon 7X VP-BZE is in New Zealand and the thick fog at Auckland on the morning of 26 May did not deter it from departing to the clearer skies of Wellington where it was caught by Michael L arriving a short time later.

Fog chaos at Auckland

What was hoped would be a thing of the past unfortunately returned to haunt airline operators at Auckland International on the morning of 26 May with thick, persistent fog rolling in just after sunrise.  This in itself would not normally have posed a threat to the general operation of jet aircraft capable of category II and III ILS (instrument landing system) approaches however the ground aid beaming out the signal was unfortunately deemed "unservicable" the previous day and as fate would have it the fog knew it!  As a consequence a swath arriving flights were diverted after either waiting in holding patterns or for some after missing attempted approaches to land in the pea soup.  

Two of these "misses" were by long haul arrivals namely an Air NZ Boeing 777-200 ZK-OKB operating as NZ80 from Hong Kong and Jetstar Asia Airbus A330-200 VH-EBJ from Singapore as 3K401.  Both aircraft diverted to Christchurch at around the same time as each other and subsequently returned north after picking up fuel.

VH-EBJ is seen here lifting off runway 02 at Christchurch marking Jetstar Asia's first visit to the South Island.

Dreamliner visits Queensland

The first Boeing 787 to visit Brisbane touched down around midday 26 May on a brief visit, arriving from and returning to Sydney.  N787BX (ZA003) arrived at Sydney direct from Boeing Field on 24 May and will visit Auckland and Christchurch next week.

http://www.newairplane.com/787/dreamtour/

Arriving at Brisbane, Lloyd F photo

Dreamers Wings

During March this year we had the pleasure of meeting Yasu from Japan who visited NZ for the RNZAF Anniversary Airshow and Wanaka Airshow, check out his website for some brilliant photos and also from other non NZ events he has covered.

http://www.dreamerswings.com/news_2012.html


Enjoy!

Falcon 7X VP-BZE

Bermudan registered Falcon 7X VP-BZE arrived at Auckland in the small hours of 25 May from Sydney.  This aircraft has been a frequent visitor to NZ, its last visit during the Rugby World Cup in October last year.

At Auckland in August 2008, Wayne G photo

Legacy VH-VLT

Melbourne/Essendon charter operator Marcplan took delivery of Embraer Legacy VH-VLT in January 2010 with the aircraft arriving at Essendon on the 28th of that month from Maui and Nadi.  Its first visit to Auckland wasn't until 18 August 2010 when it flew from Essendon to Auckland then onto Brisbane, Hamilton Island and home to Essendon.

The Legacy has visited NZ a couple of times, most recently in March with a visit to Christchurch and then a couple of days ago when it arrived at Wellington from Sydney on 23 May then to Auckland and Essendon 24 May.

Preparing to depart Wellington 24 May

Above and below during its first visit to NZ in winter 2010, MRC photos