Ansett NZ - Flying Air NZ First Class in 1985

As I have multiple random newspaper articles, here are three from 1988-1989, and a separate article on flying Air NZ in first class in 1990

The Dominion Editorial on 5 August 1989 bemoaning that Ansett New Zealand exists mainly to keep Air New Zealand "decent" on domestic routes, but not enough people fly on it to keep it viable. The editorial says Ansett is the "tops" just "we don't fly it enough". That of course, was ultimately the problem. It takes a humorous turn predicting what would happen if (!) Ansett NZ shut down... "Anyone producing a sandwich or a pork nibble would see it snatched away and thrust into a binliner by a painted brunhilde in a bouffant hairdo who has been kept on the payroll these last few years for this happy occasion"..."The overall mood would be Czechoslovakia 1968"... "Let's not blow it over Ansett" it ends, hoping enough people would fly on it.  In the end, they did not.

A related article from 1988 predicted Ansett NZ might fly international flights (which it never did), but it would need to be 65% New Zealand owned to be designated to do so. The article noted that it could only fly routes "left open" by Air New Zealand giving landing rights (in effect routes that do not have capacity limits all taken by Air New Zealand).

The small article notes Air NZ's upgrade of its Boeing 747-200, 767 and 737 fleets with "new contour seats" for business and first class, and new menus, wines and tableware, with Royal Doulton China for first and business class.

In 1985, Paul Elenio for the Evening Post flew on Air New Zealand in first class from Auckland to Los Angeles on one of its Boeing 747-200s (stopping at Honolulu as non-stop AKL-LAX was not feasible until the Boeing 747-400s arrived). He was to continue further to Seattle for the revealing of the airlines first Boeing 767s.  This article describes his experience of flying in the nose of the Boeing 747-200 in first class. It has no photos unfortunately, but does briefly describe the "first class lounge" at Auckland international and the "delights" provided, such as champagne, feet slip-ons, eye shades, stereo headset, toothbrush set and a "leather gift". 

The meals are described, with Hors d'oeuvres, caviar and the "five fine wines".  The large reclining seats did not go completely flat of course, but he did have a good sleep, although after six hours it was time to be fed again for the arrival at Honolulu.  A continental breakfast was served.  At Honolulu everyone clears customs and immigration so the Honolulu-Los Angeles segment is effectively domestic, but it sounds like passengers all picked up luggage and dropped it off again.   Then full breakfast is served including panfried fish, poached eggs or omelette.  Before landing at Los Angeles, more food is served with sandwiches, cheese and biscuits and petit fours with coffee.  It was also noted there was a movie, which of course was shown on a single big screen at the front (no personal entertainment screens in 1985). 

Certainly catering in 1985 in first class was a big deal, but compared to 2024 in business class, which almost universally includes a lie flat seat/bed, and personal entertainment system, not to mention non-stop flights between NZ and the US mainland, it's hard to miss too much of flying in first class in 1985 (not to mention the fact part of the cabin would have had smoking allowed).

Ansett NZ Whisperjets - Tranzair

It's 1989, and Ansett NZ was starting to replace its aging Boeing 737-100 jets (ex. Lufthansa, part of the original Boeing 737s introduced into service in 1967/1968) with BAe 146 four-engined jets, which were branded "Whisper Jets" because they were so much quieter than the 737s that both Ansett flew and Air NZ flew (although Air NZ's were the slightly quieter 737-200 Advanced series, it still had low-bypass turbofans that are deafening by today's standards, and aren't actually legal to fly in many airports throughout the world as a result).

Especially in Wellington, where airport noise had become a bigger issue due to the increase in frequency of Boeing 737 classic services, Ansett saw the BAe 146 as a differentiator to attract business, and would continue to fly them until the airline's demise in 2000.

Parallel to that, Ansett expanded beyond the trunk. TranzAir was a franchise created to link Ansett NZ to the operations of other airlines, in this case Rex Aviation flying Embraer Bandeirante between Wellington and Nelson (more on the 3rd level blog site).  Wellington-Blenheim was added later, along with Auckland-Whakatane and Auckland-Whangarei.  Although Auckland-Whangarei was cancelled in 1998 due to it being unprofitable, the regional Ansett NZ services continued until the airline shut down in 2001.

\

Boeing 747-400 ordered by Air NZ, review of the 747-400 and Qantas gets the 747-400

The Boeing 747-400 was a major step forward for long-haul international travel worldwide because it was significant improvement in range.  It enabled non-stop flights between Australia and New Zealand and North (and South) America and one-stop flights to Europe.  Air NZ flew them from 1990 until 2014, and they were the flagship of the airline throughout that period. From 1990 until 2004 they had first, business and economy class, and then were refurbished for the business premier, premium economy, economy.  The AKL-LAX-LHR route flown by it until 2011, and it also flew the AKL-HKG-LHR route for a while, until it became clear that LHR-HKG had insufficient loads to justify the aircraft's size. Its final regular route was AKL-SFO.  

Multiple airlines flew Boeing 747-400s to NZ. Qantas had a large fleet of them, but rarely flew them to NZ (as they were for long haul routes).  However, Singapore Airlines flew them regularly, as did Malaysian, Thai, Cathay Pacific, Korean, British Airways and United at different times. Today Lufthansa is the biggest major passenger operator of the type (excluding cargo versions).  694 Boeing 747-400s were delivered, compared to 393 of the Boeing 747-200 (which Air NZ flew first), 168 Boeing 747-100s and 81 Boeing 747-300.  Of course the Boeing 747-8 was the last version, but only received 155 orders, mostly for freighter varieties.  Most Boeing 747-400s flying today are freighter aircraft.

The articles below focus on different elements of the aircraft before it started flying with the airline. 

The first was focused on claims that the 747-400 is no more efficient than the 747-100 (which simply wasn't true due to the savings of fuel and time from greater range) and wouldn't reduce airfares (although it real terms international airfares dropped significantly from 1990 through to 2010).  

The second concentrated on the travel experience, with an article below reporting the first 747-400 flight to NZ, which was from Qantas on a scheduled service from Sydney (its first scheduled service, as Qantas flew Trans-Tasman services for several weeks to train crew and to test systems effectively).

The third is a short piece depicting the then Air NZ CEO Jim Scott in the new first class on the first Air NZ 747. 

Dominion 12 October 1988

This first article is a report by Martyn Gosling claiming that Air NZ's forthcoming 747-400s would not be more efficient than earlier model 747s. Noting its 13,000km range, Boeing claimed it used 25% less fuel per passenger than first generation 747s. It was noted Air NZ would receive its first 747-400 in July 1989. Much of the article discusses performance, with a lot of commentary about British Airways factoring in the economics of the aircraft. It was noted it could fly Auckland-Dallas non-stop.  Ultimately, of course, the 747-400 was the most successful model of the type, and would be a stalwart of most major international airlines for many years.

This second article focused on the passenger experience of the 747-400.  It claimed that airliner seats (in economy class) were no wider in 1989 than there were in 1959.  It follows briefly the history of airliner travel to 1989. The article notes the 747-400 will make flying cheaper in real terms than ever before (which was correct), but that it flies no faster than the Boeing 707. At the time 215 had been ordered.  It claims that although first and business class will be the best ever, economy class will be the worst, because of very long flight sectors with the greatest level of dehydration and jet lag.  It noted 747 economy class seat width was 17.2 inches, the same as Boeing 707s.  However, seat pitch on 707s was generally 35-36 inches with 3 inches of seat padding, but at the time 747s would have 32 inch seat pitch with 2 inches of padding (today many long haul airlines have only 31 inch pitch). Concern was expressed about dehydration and passengers not wanting to get up to exercise. It was noted Air NZ would have 34 inch seat pitch in economy, which it did and was one of the best of any international airlines.  The longest flight Air NZ planned to operate the aircraft was Los Angeles-Sydney (which Air NZ did operate direct for many years). 

There is also a short report on the first 747-400 to land in NZ, which was from Qantas. 

This short place depicts Air NZ's first Boeing 747-400, with the then CEO Jim Scot trying out the new first class cabin (with large recliners that did not lie flat, as this was not commonplace until the late 1990s). However, it was noted the airline was not going to operate them, due to industrial relations, so would lease them to Cathay Pacific

Air New Zealand considers replacements for its Boeing 737-200 fleet and celebrating 20 years of the Boeing 737

 

In 1989, the Dominion's Martyn Gosling speculated that Air NZ was about to order replacement of around half of its Boeing 737-200 fleet, "forced" upon the airline due to noise complaints in Wellington and the "marketing advantage" of Ansett NZ flying the quieter and newer Bae 146 ("whisper jets").   The other "problem" was at the time there was peak demand for new aircraft and Air NZ needed to rush to buy otherwise it would "miss out". Of course demand for new airliners fluctuates over the years as airline markets rise and fall, so this proved not to be a key issue.

This article fundamentally proved to be wrong. Ansett NZ's Bae 146 aircraft did not save the airline from losing money, and Air NZ chose not to replace the Boeing 737-200s until the mid 1990s, when it ordered the last set of Boeing 737-300s off the production line at heavily discounted prices.  The Boeing 737-200s would continue to fly with Air NZ until 2001, with hush kits.

The article speculated that Air NZ could:

• Order hush kits for the 737-200s to address the noise issue at Wellington (this was done)
• Order the Airbus A320 (but the article claimed it would be "too big" for the regional routes 737s were operating to at the time, such as Hamilton, Invercargill, Palmerston North and Napier, but the airline dropped jet flights to those airports in the 90s).  Air NZ would latterly operate Airbus A320s for short-haul international services from 2003 and order more to replace the Boeing 737-300s in 2009. 
• Order the Boeing 737-500 (and the larger Boeing 737-400) and also use them for short-haul international services, to free the 767s for longer haul routes.

So for another thirteen years, Air NZ would fly the Boeing 737-200 series, albeit with hush kits ordered in the 1990s to address noise complaints.  From 1998 the Boeing 737-300s would start to replace them on both domestic and short-haul international routes, until Airbus A320s replaced them on the short-haul international services from 2003 and ultimately the last Boeing 737-300s were phased out in 2015 on domestic services (replaced by newer Airbus A320s).

Relevant is this 1987 article by Martyn Gosling celebrating twenty years of the Boeing 737 being in operation. It is a history of the Boeing 737 to date, and it remains remarkable that even in 2023, this same basic design is still being manufactured (albeit in what is essentially the fourth generation version in the 737 Max series).  The history is in a NZ context, but it is worth remembering that in the first few years sales of the Boeing 737 were so slow, Boeing nearly scrapped the programme altogether.  Boeing 737s remain in NZ use only for domestic air cargo by Parcelair, and from foreign carriers such as Qantas and Fiji Airways, flying internationally.  

For New Zealand more generally, the Boeing 737 was revolutionary as it effectively was the deathknell of the future Silverstar overnight luxury express sleeper train which started in 1971, and the overnight ferry service from Wellington to Lyttelton.  The Boeing 737 stripped business travel away from the Railways Department and the Union Steamship Company from the late 1960s through the 1970s, as such travellers preferred a short flight to spending a night on a train (or a ferry - in the form of the TEV Maori and the TEV Rangatira).

At the time of NAC introducing Boeing 737s, the overnight rail service between Wellington and Auckland was austere. Sleeper cars were only two-berth cabins, with toilets (no showers) at the end of the carriages, and no on-board catering (trains stopped multiple times for refreshments at station cafeterias). Meanwhile the Wellington-Lyttelton overnight ferry service was significantly hindered by the tragic sinking of the TEV Wahine, which left the service operating on alternate nights as only the much older TEV Maori was available. In 1971 the Silverstar started service, and in 1972 the TEV Rangatira, both of which significantly lifted the standards of the respective services, but it was too late. The Wellington-Lyttelton ferry service was terminated in 1976 after years of losses (and two years of subsidies to try to revive it), and the Silverstar was terminated in 1979 for an ill-fated refurbishment, to replace the rolling stock of the more basic Northerner train. That did not proceed, and ended luxury overnight passenger train service between Wellington and Auckland.