Aircraft not required

Press, 12 November 1981, Page 1

Aircraft not required

By

LES BLOXHAM

Travel editor

Air New Zealand no longer wants the new Boeing 737 which it ordered last year and which is already on Boeing’s production line at Renton, near Seattle. Although committed to the purchase, the airline hopes that Boeing will be able to find a buyer for the $l4 million aircraft before it is completed early next year. . The continuing decline in

passengers flying within New Zealand has removed the need for the 737, which would have boosted the domestic all-jet fleet to 11. The airline is, however, believed to be keen to buy a new QC version of the 737, a “convertible” that can be used either as a freighter or for passengers. Its special design enables the conversion to be made in less than an hour. In its ail-freight configuration. the 737 QC can carry

containers that fit the holds in the under-belly of its jumbo-sized brother, the Boeing 747. When the last of the airline’s DClOs are withdrawn, much of the present widebody container capacity between Auckland and Christchurch will be lost. The DClOs fly one domestic service daily between the two cities but Air New Zealand has no intention of maintaining this wide-body link with its new 7475.

According to reliable sources, the Boeing company has indicated that it could provide the airline with a 737 C within six months. But first it must find a buyer for the unwanted plane, not an easy task at a time when the aviation industry world-wide is in such a depressed state. Air New Zealand’s director of public and corporate affairs, Mr D. C. Saxton, declined to comment on the matter.