Airline flies against prevailing ill winds

By SCOTT MacLEOD

Robert Inglis watched quietly as Qantas New Zealand folded its wings and collapsed into a screaming heap of creditors and jobless workers.

He watched again as Ansett Australia did the same thing, and Air New Zealand stepped up to the brink of death.

The remarkable thing is that all those dead and dying carriers are much bigger than Mr Inglis' own airline, Origin Pacific Airways, which has cruised serenely through the storm of rocketing fuel bills and fierce competition.

In fact, the Nelson-based airline has done much better than that. This year it has added two 50-seat Dash 8 aircraft to its four Jetstreams, two Metroliners and one Cessna.

It has added Rotorua, Queenstown and Christchurch to eight other destinations. It has added the equivalent of 60 full-time staff to the 100 it was estimated to have had six months ago.

Where will all this stop - with world domination?

Mr Inglis, who owns 71.2 per cent of the airline, says his goals are more modest.

"We've been minding our own business and paddling our own canoe," he says. "We know from having to battle Air New Zealand the last few years that we have to look carefully before taking our next step."

But despite the cautious words, some aviation analysts believe the airline is perfectly poised to take advantage of the woes of its competitors.

Origin Pacific was born in 1997 after Air New Zealand made some of its managers at Air Nelson redundant. For Mr Inglis and his partner, Nicki Smith, who owned Air Nelson between them until selling out between 1988 and 1991, it was a chance to grab some good people and set up a new airline.

Origin Pacific was based on no-frills passenger services aimed at the leisure traveller and small business, freight services and charter flights. It had no cabin attendants or in-flight service, no air points and no fancy lounges.

The airline grew steadily until the Qantas NZ collapse in April opened new doors.

Qantas Australia moved into New Zealand and asked Origin to provide feeder services to the main trunk route of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

The two airlines now have a code-share agreement.

Despite Mr Inglis' caution, he does hint that the airline is poised to expand again soon. It may lease or buy more aircraft and open routes to Dunedin and Blenheim.

But he is angry that Air NZ may be given taxpayer money to fix woes caused by mismanagement - a move which he believes would give his biggest rival an advantage.

"It's galling for us," he says. "It's difficult enough in this business without having to compete with an airline that is not subject to the same commercial pressures."

How has Origin survived those pressures?

Mr Inglis says one key is diversity. When times are tough in the passenger business, the freight and charter operations smooth over the troubles.

Christchurch aviation writer Les Bloxham says another key to the airline's success is Mr Inglis himself. He has built his airline slowly without mounting the nasty debts that have scuttled bigger players.

And Bloxham is sure the airline will profit from the woes of its competitors.

"I don't think Origin will want to expand too quickly. Anyone who does that is a nutter. But it's nicely placed to pick up traffic that may drop out because of the other airlines' problems."

Origin has reached the point that it is small enough to slip into regional routes neglected by its competitors, and big enough to have an annoying Machine that tells you how important your call is when "all our operators are busy at present".

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