Air New Zealand domestic timetable October 1986 - March 1987 Part Two - The timetable

Without going into details about the flight timetable, noting it included several airports no longer served by Air New Zealand today (Oamaru, Kaitaia, Westport, Whakatane for example), Boeing 767 services consisted on average of one flight a day between Auckland and Wellington, three flights a week Auckland and Christchurch, with one flight a week with a Boeing 747 on that route. One flight a week from Christchurch to Wellington was operated by a Boeing 767. Thus the availability of Pacific Class (Business Class) on domestic services was very limited indeed!

The timetable has direct flights depicted rather simply, with a large series of connections. What was good about a printed timetable was the ease of seeing what services would operate on different days, and what connections might be available (but of course price of fares depends on availability which would only be known by contacting a travel agent).

Note the timetable includes timetables for multiple other airlines that Air New Zealand was co-ordinating with at the time notably:

• Mount Cook Airline (which Air New Zealand owned a significant shareholding in)
• Eagle Airways (which Air New Zealand ultimately bought)
• Safe Air (which supplied passenger service to the Chatham Islands using an Armstrong Whitworth Argosy passenger pod inserted in the freighter's fuselage)
• Bell Air (operating Auckland to Whakatane)
• Southern Air (operating from Invercargill to Stewart Island)

Auckland departures

Auckland departures

Auckland and Blenheim departures

Blenheim and Christchurch departures

Christchurch departures

Christchurch departures

Christchurch and Dunedin departures

Dunedin departures

Gisborne departures

Gisborne and Hamilton departures

Hamilton and Hokitika departures

Hokitika and Invercargill departures

Invercargill and Kaitaia departures

Kaitaia and Napier departures

Napier and Nelson departures

Nelson departures

Nelson and New Plymouth departures

New Plymouth, Oamaru and Palmerston North departures

Palmerston North and Rotorua departures

Rotorua and Taupo departures

Taupo and Tauranga departures

Tauranga and Timaru departures

Timaru and Wanganui departures

Wanganui and Wellington departures

Wellington departures

Wellington, Westport and Whakatane departures

Whakatane and Whangarei departures

Mount Cook Airline timetable

Mount Cook Airline timetable

Mount Cook Airline and Safe Air timetable

Bell Air and Eagle Airways timetables

Eagle Airways and Southern Air timetables

Air New Zealand domestic timetable October 1986 - March 1987 Part One - Information pages

This timetable is the last Air New Zealand summer domestic timetable before the introduction of competition with Ansett New Zealand.  Below is a scan of all of the pages, and because there are 33 of them, I thought it prudent to highlight the key points of interest beforehand.

Under passenger information it describes that the airline operates Boeing 737s, 767s and 747s on main-trunk routes, and 737s on some provincial routes, with Fokker F27 Friendships on other provincial routes. Business class (branded Pacific Class) was only available on 767 and 747 operated services. 

Check-in time for 737 and F27 services was only 15 minutes, 20 minutes for 767 and 30 minutes for 747 flights. Recall there was no domestic airline security.

Discount airfares were available under the following categories:

• Epic fares (35% discount) for early purchase of fares on most F27 and many jet flights outside holiday periods
• Thrifty and Super Thrifty fares on main trunk routes, at specific times outside holiday periods
• 30% off for senior citizens on specified flights

On board catering consisted of:

• Light meals for business class passengers (767 and 747 flights) with newspapers on morning and evening flights, and complementary headsets to use inflight audio entertainment systems
• Light snacks and beverages on specified services from Auckland-Wellington, Auckland-Christchurch and Wellington-Dunedin (737 services of at least 1 hour).  This was Danish pastries on early morning services. Lunch and evening periods had "club" and "open-faced" sandwiches.
• Cheese, biscuits and beverages served on other 737 services (except Dunedin-Invercargill) and on longer F27 routes (Auckland-Gisborne, Auckland-Napier, Auckland-Nelson, Auckland-Palmerston North, Wellington-Gisborne, Wellington-Hamilton, Wellington-Tauranga, Wellington-Rotorua and Wellington-Timaru, Christchurch-Napier, Christchurch-Palmerston North)
• Fruit juice only between Wellington-Christchurch and Christchurch-Dunedin.

Sample standard airfares were:

• Auckland-Wellington $140.80 ($421 in 2023 prices)
• Wellington-Nelson $78.10 ($233 in 2023 prices)
• Christchurch-Invercargill $138.60 ($415 in 2023 prices)

The timetable itself also includes timetables for Mount Cook Airline and Eagle Airways (by this time co-ordinating with Air New Zealand), Safeair services to the Chatham Islands, Bell Air and Southern Air. 

It also includes ground transport from airports, which in almost all cases was a commercial arrangement by particular bus operators in each city and town. Palmerston North was the largest city with no scheduled service to and from the airport, with Hokitika and Westport the smallest airports with passenger services between airport and town.

Auckland had Johnson's Blue Motors operating a regular bus service every half hour for $6 ($18 in 2023 values)

Wellington had Guthrey's operating a regular scheduled bus service every 20 minutes weekdays for $3 ($9 in 2023 values)

Christchurch had the publicly owned Christchurch Transport Board operating a regular service as part of the local bus network for $2.40 ($7 in 2023 values)

Of note was a single daily bus service between Masterton and Wellington Airport, operated by Transport Wairarapa, stopping through the Wairarapa and at Upper Hutt, and returning once.  Fare of $8.50 ($25 in 2023 values).

Also included is a domestic air cargo price schedule, list of Air New Zealand sales and agent offices, and a domestic route map finishing off with a Billy T. James fronted ad for Thrifty airfares.

Air New Zealand domestic timetable Effective 26 October 1986 - 28 March 1987

Contents page and Hertz

Guide and passenger information

Passenger information

Standard domestic airfares

Airport ground transport

Domestic air cargo information

Air New Zealand offices and agents

Route map and Billy T advertising Thrifty Fares

Air New Zealand London Airfares in 1982

 

London Fares Guide - class descriptions

London Fares Guide 1982

1982 was the year Air New Zealand started flying its own aircraft, under its own crew, from Auckland to London, via Papeete and Los Angeles (Boeing 747-200 aircraft did not have the range to fly non-stop from Auckland to the United States). However, Air New Zealand sold airfares to London not just via Los Angeles, but also via Tokyo and Singapore.  Air fares were agreed by the Government, so the cheapest fares available, in economy class (which at the time was arguably more spacious than today, with a 34" seat pitch and 10 abreast seating on a 747 much more spacious than today's 31" or 32" in 10 abreast on the narrower 777 or even 9-abreast on the even narrower 787). was $1884 in 1982 dollars from Auckland to London.  That is $8,372 in 2023 prices.

To achieve a comparable fare under similar conditions, a search on the Air NZ website for a return trip from February until March 2024 of $2,768, indicating that in real terms long haul airfares have reduced by around two thirds. (Of course Air New Zealand no longer flies all the way to London, so the fare below is codeshared with Singapore Airlines via Singapore, the fares below also include codeshares with Virgin Atlantic via Los Angeles)

For those wanting a bit more space, Pacific Class was Air New Zealand's first business class, and essentially consisted of a bit more legroom, empty middle seats, lounge access and better catering.  A lot of parallels with today's premium economy, except with less legroom and recline (although lounge access is not available with premium economy on Air New Zealand). 

Pacific Class cost $4,816 in 1982 dollars, which today is equivalent to $21,400!  Premium economy today is around $6,680 (choosing the cheapest option through Singapore and cheapest via Los Angeles).  That's a drop in price of around 69%.

First Class described in this leaflet, was $7,166 in 1982 which today is equivalent to $31,845!  The description in the leaflet shows seating that is not even up to today's business class, with recliners in pairs, rather than flat beds, with little privacy.  The soft product with catering and drink was undoubtedly superior, but that's about it.  Compared to Business Class today at $14,655.  This is a drop of around 54%, but the options are wider today.  By simply flying via Singapore, that fare drops to $9,812 return, a 70% drop if you don't need to fly via Los Angeles.

 

So what if you DO want to fly first class today?  Of course Air New Zealand abolished first class in 2004 with the introduction of Business Premier, which is a slightly older version of the same seat used today. 

However, First Class IS available on Emirates (and was available on Singapore Airlines), albeit to a standard that exceeds Air New Zealand in 1982. This means private suite seats, showers on A380s, your own minibar and an actual bar to visit on the plane (which business class also has access to). At that point the fare is $16,637, which is still cheaper in real terms than business class in 1982.

The conclusion of this is that in 40 years long-haul airfares (between New Zealand and London) have dropped to levels between 20 and 33% of what they were in 1982 in real terms.  That reflects the removal of government restrictions on airfares in the mid to late 1980s, but also the vast liberalisation of the airline industry in that time, with competition by airline, by route and hub, and the enormous efficiencies achieved across the industry.

Ansett New Zealand valet parking and "I gave them to the pilot and he threw them out the window"

 

Ansett Golden Wing Valet Parking

Valet Parking as with airport lounges, is a standard service available with Air New Zealand at major domestic airports (Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch), but as with airport lounges, it was Ansett New Zealand that introduced valet parking at those airports. Above is its promotional leaflet for it. It was linked to membership of the Golden Wing lounge, but was not free, except for First Class passengers (for the first 48 hours).  Being able to simply park, hand over the keys and check in, and then pick up the keys when returning became the norm for the three main domestic airports.  Note that even today Air New Zealand has NOT implemented valet parking at other airports, as it was the three biggest ones that had direct competition.

It's not directly related, as it was not promoting Valet Parking, but perhaps Ansett New Zealand's most famous television commercial was best known by the phrase "I gave them to the pilot and he threw them out the window". It was simply advertising a high standard of service from the airline reflected by a man who took the car keys from his car, which his wife was going to use to drive the car back from the terminal (after he presumably drove there himself).  He had the keys on board, so the flight attendant fixed the problem, as the commercial shows...