Air New Zealand’s newest aircraft arrives as airline tries to improve reliability in regions

Air NZ took delivery of its first ATR 72-600 aircraft from Toulouse, France in 2012.

Air New Zealand’s 30th ATR regional aircraft enters service today, providing more capacity that the airline hopes will improve reliability on regional routes.

The airline’s domestic jet network has been stretched by problems hitting Pratt & Whitney engines on its planes with ATRs doing more flying on main trunk routes, in turn leaving them spread more thinly on regional routes.

Baden Smith, Air NZ’s general manager of strategy, networks, and fleet, said the arrival of the latest ATR72-600 would help provide maintenance flexibility and regional reliability.

The extra plane would not mean more services but allow the airline more flexibility to cover the existing ones.

‘’We’ve seen things in the global aviation ecosystem more challenged than pre-Covid. So we see this aircraft is absolutely critical to that resilience without necessarily making any adjustments to the overall schedule that we operate,‘’ he said.

List prices for the plane have been reported at around US$20 million ($35m) to US$25m ($44.6m) but airlines typically get discounts, especially if they’re big customers of a particular aircraft type.

Smith said Air NZ had bought the plane outright and has another due for delivery later this year.

Air NZ subsidiary Mount Cook Airlines operated earlier models from French-Italian planemaker ATR (Avions de Transport Régional) from 1995.

Since getting the latest ATR-600 model into its fleet in 2012, Air NZ has flown an estimated 33.2 million customers on more than 610,809 flights around the country.

The new aircraft will operate its first scheduled flight from Christchurch to Invercargill today.

The aircraft, registered ZK-MZG, has been undergoing final checks and having equipment fitted since delivery from Toulouse in France late in December.

It was flown here by ferry flight specialists and its week-long journey spanned more than 20,000km, with stops in Heraklion, Riyadh, Oman, Hyderabad, Kuala Lumpur, Denpasar, Darwin, and Brisbane before landing in Christchurch.

This new plane features the Pratt & Whitney PW127XT engine, which is designed to deliver an estimated 3% fuel savings compared to its predecessor.

ATRs operate in most of the 20 centres on Air NZ’s domestic network.

Passengers on aircraft under 90 seats aren’t required to undergo security screening.

Smith said the ATR had become the backbone of the airline’s domestic network for regional customers.

‘’It performs exceptionally well in NZ’s unique operating conditions with its fuel efficiency, reliability, and ability to access smaller airports.‘’

Last September an engine on an ATR caught fire at Wellington but Smith said there were no concerns with the aircraft type.

‘’It is a really robust aircraft that has performed brilliantly for us,‘’ he said

The ATR fleet has an average age of about seven years but its 23-strong Q300 is on average twice that and is in need of replacement into the next decade. Smith said the airline was still assessing options to replace the 50-seater.

‘’There is nothing that we’re willing to pull the trigger on as it stands today but we are working really closely with a couple of manufacturers that would suit that 2030 time frame.”

Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.