Pacific Blue’s Embraer 190 E-Jet Tours New Zealand

In early May, one of the Virgin Blue Group’s newest aircraft, a 104-seat Pacific Blue Embraer 190 E-Jet, made a tour of New Zealand in order to familiarise Pacific Blue staff with the jet, as well as to gauge feedback on the aircraft’s potential suitability for New Zealand operations.

Since it began operations in New Zealand around 18 months ago, Pacific Blue has been operating its 180-seat Boeing 737-800s on the main trunk domestic routes. A company spokesman said that there remained “other tempting opportunities to introduce further competition”.

Virgin Blue has been operating the E-jets on Australian domestic routes for two years and Adrian Hamilton-Manns, who is the airline’s “General Manager Commercial” in New Zealand, said the aircraft might be an ideal fit for international regional routes or New Zealand domestic operations. He described the E-Jet tour as a chance for the local aviation and tourism industry to see the jet up close, and said the airline would be discussing possibilities and opportunities with airports, business and tourism communities.

“We’re committed to developing our New Zealand presence and this week’s E-Jet tour of the country will enable Pacific Blue to gain valuable feedback from airports as well as the tourism and business communities,” Mr Hamilton-Manns said.

He added that Pacific Blue was proud of having brought “real competition” to the New Zealand domestic air travel market. In addition to lowering prices as a result, he pointed to the “substantial changes” in business models—and the market—giving the example of Qantas leaving the New Zealand domestic market and Jetstar entering it.

Mr Hamilton-Manns said the E-Jet had proved extremely popular with air travellers in many parts of the world and said that the airline is enthusiastic about its operational suitability. However, he made it clear that new routes and services had to be commercially feasible and sustainable in the long run, “so we are doing our homework in that regard,” he added.

The twin-engined Embraer 190, with a “spacious two-two configuration”, is capable of flying to all domestic and international airports on Pacific Blue’s network in New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific.

During its tour, the jet visited in Christchurch, Wellington, Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Dunedin and Invercargill airports.