Mount Cook Airline HS748

 

Mount Cook Airlines HS748

Mount Cook Airlines HS748

From 1968-1996, Mount Cook Airline's flagship was the British-built Hawker Siddeley HS748 turboprop.  This leaflet was produced by Mount Cook Airline in response to the launch of Newmans Air with its De Havilland Dash 7 aircraft, because of inference from Newmans Air that the HS748 was inferior and dated in comparison (noting the Dash 7 had a high wing configuration, whereas many seats on the HS748 would have views partly obscured by the wing. The leaflet notes it has 44 seats and is fully pressurised.

The leaflet is interesting for depicting Mount Cook Airline's route network at the time, but also its coach network (Wellington-Auckland, Christchurch-Queenstown, as well as Auckland-Napier).  At the time, the airline route was a tourism backbone of Kerikeri-Auckland-Rotorua-Christchurch-Mount Cook-Queenstown. 

The date of this leaflet is unclear, but is likely to be around 1985-1987.  At the time Mount Cook Airline was between 35% and 77% owned by Air New Zealand, it was eventually to be come a fully owned subsidiary in 1991.