Air New Zealand introduces the Boeing 767-200ER - and reintroduces international flights from Wellington to Australia

 

Air New Zealand Boeing 767-200ER leaflet 1985

Air New Zealand Boeing 767-200ER leaflet 1985

In 1981 Air NZ ceased flying internationally from Wellington as it withdrew its Douglas DC-8-52 passenger fleet from service due to mounting losses. After that there was around a four year gap before it restarted flights using its first Boeing 767-200ER aircraft. This leaflet promote the new aircraft before they came into operation, as three had been ordered. Not only would they return international flights to Wellington (in competition with Qantas which had not ceased operations as it was using Boeing 747-SP aircraft before switching to its own Boeing 767s before Air NZ started to fly them), but they were the first Air NZ aircraft to operate from Wellington with an international business class and the first Air NZ wide body aircraft for regular service at Wellington (and the last).  The 767-200ER would also become a mainstay of Trans-Tasman flights to and from Christchurch and supplement Auckland services too, including the Perth route, but also would operate regular Auckland-Christchurch and a handful of weekly Auckland-Wellington and Wellington-Christchurch services (my first wide-body aircraft flight was on a 767-200ER from Christchurch to Wellington in my teens).

The Boeing 767-200ER would become a mainstay of Air NZ's short to medium haul international services, operating until 2005, when finally replaced by the airline's first generation of Airbus A320s. Of course the 767s with 220 passengers had a lot of capacity, so service frequencies were very poor by today's standards (by comparison today's Airbus A320NEO have only 165 seats). After a month of introductory service, the full summer schedule indicates only three flights a week WLG-SYD and one a week WLG-MEL and WLG-BNE.  Note also the absence of the early morning departures seen today for this route (no flights before 0800) and midnight arrivals (no arrivals after 2220) for Wellington. 

Air New Zealand Boeing 767 postcard and publicity card

Air New Zealand Boeing 767 publicity card (flip side)