Mount Cook Airline Timetable 01 October 1986

 

Mount Cook Airline route map 1986

Mount Cook Airline timetable glossary

Mount Cook Airline fare and service terms and conditions

Mount Cook Airline special flights and VIP service

Mount Cook Airline timetable departures from Alexandra, Auckland and Bay of Islands

Mount Cook Airline timetable departures from Christchurch

Mount Cook Airline timetable departures from Dunedin, Milford Sound and Mount Cook

Mount Cook Airline timetable departures from Mount Cook, Queenstown and Rotorua

Mount Cook Airline timetable departures from Rotorua and Te Anau

Mount Cook Airline timetable departures from Te Anau and Wellington

Mount Cook Airline timetable office and agents

Mount Cook Airline timetable offices

The timetable above for Mount Cook Airlines was about at the peak of the airline's operations before Air New Zealand took substantial and eventually full control of the airline, before absorbing it completely into its operations.

The Mount Cook Group had a long history in the tourism sector in New Zealand, initially with long-distance coach services. From 1920 to 1961, rather erratically, there were a number of Mount Cook airline operations with charter services, but from 1961 it started operating scheduled services (see more here).

Services were initially operated by Douglas DC-3s, focused on flying Christchurch-Mount Cook to Queenstown, noting that Mount Cook airfield was built by the Mount Cook Group many years before for its charter services (this would later become an issue when Newmans Air became a competitor and Mount Cook Group was uninterested in letting it fly to its own privately owned airport).

From 1968 Mount Cook Airline started flying Hawker Siddeley HS748s, its first fully-pressurised aircraft and established its core route - Auckland-Rotorua-Christchurch-Mount Cook-Queenstown. At the time, domestic airline services were heavily regulated, so it had effectively a statutory monopoly on this route (state-owned NAC, later Air New Zealand did NOT operate this route).  With the death of Sir Henry Wigley (a founder of the Mount Cook Group) in 1980, Air New Zealand subsequently acquired a small shareholding in the airline, increasing this to 30% in 1983, up to 47% in October 1985 as Air New Zealand sought to avoid the Mount Cook Group becoming the basis for a serious competitor to it.  

In 1986 the Mount Cook Group was focused on not just airline services, but its "Landline" brand of scheduled, tour and charter coach services, including the Auckland-Wellington Landliner and similar services from Auckland to Napier/Hastings, Christchurch to Queenstown and connecting services to Mount Cook (it was notable as a coach operator with buses that had on-board bathrooms, which was unknown in most competitions, such as NZR Road Services and Newmans).

Mount Cook Group was a growing tourism operator, with also a solid business in sightseeing flights to Te Anau and Milford.

In October 1986 this timetable saw Mount Cook Airline as connecting with Air New Zealand's services, with the key trunk Mount Cook route supplemented by services from Dunedin to Queenstown via Alexandra operated by Britten Norman Islander aircraft, the Auckland-Kerikeri (Bay of Islands) route with Piper Chieftains. 

In 1991 Air New Zealand acquired the remaining shares in Mount Cook Airline and it became a fully-owned subsidiary, based in Christchurch. As with Eagle Airways and Air Nelson, Air New Zealand treated Mount Cook Airline as one of its regional domestic airline operations.  Mount Cook's operations transitioned in the 1990s to the Aerospatiale ATR-72, and Mount Cook Airline essentially operated any domestic services using the largest turboprop aircraft (Air Nelson would operate the Bombardier/De Havilland Q300/Dash 8 and Eagle Airways the Beechcraft B-1900). In 2019 Air New Zealand would fully integrate Mount Cook Airline's operations.

In 1986 Mount Cook Airline was noted as having a rather better level of inflight service than Air New Zealand on domestic routes, noting "on long-haul services (!), the refreshments we offer include fruit juice, sandwiches, cake, fresh fruit, cheese and crackers, coffee or tea". Note the absence of any alcoholic beverages on domestic flights. Baggage allowance was 16kg (whereas 23kg is the standard today). Checkin time was 20 minutes. 

Also notable is the statement that a HS748 could be reconfigured into a VIP layout with "meeting tables, bar and full galley facilities", I wonder how often that happened?

Note at the time of this timetable, Air New Zealand did NOT fly to Queenstown or Kerikeri.  Finally, it is worth noting that for a brief period, Mount Cook Airlines considered flying internationally from Christchurch to Australia.  3rdlevelNZ blog has the story as part of its history of the airline. 

Today Air New Zealand does not operate services to several of the airports operated by Mount Cook Airline at the time of this timetable. Alexandra, Te Anau, Milford and indeed Mount Cook Airport.  Regular services to Mount Cook Airport ceased in 2002, although there was a short resumption of service from December 2012 till January 2013.  So there is literally no airline service to Mount Cook!