World's longest bird flies in

By CHRIS DANIELS

Cathay Pacific, the Hong Kong airline worst hit by the Sars outbreak, is celebrating a return to clearer skies with the arrival in New Zealand of one of its newest planes, an Airbus A340-600.

The plane, the longest commercial airliner, at 75.3m, touched down at Auckland Airport at 11am yesterday with a full load of 288 passengers.

A Boeing 747-400, the largest commercial airliner in terms of passengers carried, is 70.7m long.

Yesterday's visit was not without its glitches. The extra length posed refuelling problems, meaning a short delay before it could take off again for the return trip to Hong Kong.

Its pilots said it was a tricky job manoeuvring the plane into one of the only airport gates that a plane that size could use without blocking other aircraft.

Cathay Pacific's country manager for New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, David Figgins, said the arrival of the new aircraft was a potent symbol of the airline's return to health, after the heavy impact of Sars.

At the height of the outbreak, Cathay was down to only three flights a week between Auckland and Hong Kong, a big slump from the normal schedule of 10 flights a week.

Around 40 per cent of its fleet was grounded and staff were forced to take unpaid leave.

Cathay Pacific lost up to $6 million a day.

The World Health Organisation last week removed Hong Kong from its list of areas with "recent local transmission of Sars", saying 20 days had passed since the last case had been isolated.

Cathay will be back to flying its full 10 flights a week from Auckland by July 4.

Cheap fares and a new willingness to travel to Hong Kong were the reasons behind a full passenger load, said Figgins.

Cathay usually flies a smaller Airbus A340-300, which can carry 243 passengers.

He said the large business class of the new aircraft - 60 seats - made it unsuitable for regular use on the New Zealand-Hong Kong route, which did not have as many business travellers as other sectors.

In times of high passenger demand, though, the A340-600 would be re-deployed from other routes and fly to New Zealand.

Figgins said the restoration of full service was also good news for New Zealand exporters, for whom the route was an important one.

Included in the hold of yesterday's return flight were 500kg of eggs, three tonnes of meat headed for Vietnam and 500kg of flowers, destined for Rome.

Many export orders were cancelled because of Sars, as people in Hong Kong stopped going to restaurants and hotels.