Qantas associate picks up planes for tourist routes

By DANIEL RIORDAN aviation writer

Regional airline Origin Pacific, allied with Qantas Airways, will fly key tourist routes using planes formerly leased to Qantas NZ.

Industry sources say Origin has secured leases on the five Dash-8 turboprop aircraft to service Queenstown and Rotorua, as well as the Wellington-Christchurch route.

Two of the aircraft are 50-seaters and three are 38-seaters. They compare with Origin's existing 19-seater Metroliners, which tourist operators decried as too small when Qantas first indicated it would use Origin on its tourist and provincial feeder routes.

Qantas NZ had leased four of the Dash 8s from Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier and the fifth from Air NZ.

Qantas and Origin are understood to have entered into a financial arrangement over the cost of the planes.

Qantas also plans to fly Boeing 737s, carrying 116 passengers, into Queenstown on weekends, starting next month in time for the ski season.

The Dash-8s will make eight return trips a day on the Wellington-Christchurch route.

Soon after Qantas NZ went into receivership on April 21, Qantas started flying one 737 twice a day on the Auckland-Wellington and Auckland-Christchurch routes. It plans to introduce a second 737 next month and have four operating on these routes from July.

Qantas management yesterday declined to comment on the plans. Origin Pacific head Robert Inglis did not return calls.

Meanwhile, the cost to Qantas of its franchise's demise continues to mount.

Although under no legal obligation to do so, Qantas has so far accommodated more than 100,000 Qantas NZ passengers, either by paying for them to fly with Air NZ or by refunding, say industry sources.

In March, its last full month of operations, Qantas NZ passengers paid an average return fare of $300, suggesting the cost to Qantas of stepping in has been more than $30 million.

Anyone who held a confirmed booking on Qantas NZ before April 21 is being rebooked on Air NZ until May 22.

Qantas has been operating only a twice-daily 737 return service on the Auckland-Wellington and Auckland-Christchurch routes, and most of Qantas NZ's bookings are still being transferred to Air NZ.

Qantas will pay refunds to the end of July.

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