Iceland Volcano Prompts Aviation Alert A small volcanic eruption has occurred under Iceland's Dyngjujokull glacier, prompting Authorities to raise the warning code for Aviation to its highest level,red. The region of the Bardarbunga volcano, in the centre of the North Atlantic island nation, has already been evacuated due to days of heightened seismic activity there. Meteorologists believe a small sub glacial lava eruption has begun under the glacier. The red alert is the highest warning on the country's five point scale and indicates an eruption is imminent or underway with a significant emission of ash likely. The colour codes are intended to inform the Aviation sector about a volcano's status. Ash from the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano in 2010 shut down much of Europe's Airspace for six days, affecting more than 10 million people and costing $US1.7 billion. There have been thousands of small earthquakes over the past week at Bardar...

Hawaiian Fine Tunes New Zealand Link Hawaiian Airlines says its service to Auckland is performing well but it will fine tune its schedule and has no immediate plans to increase frequency. It also said it was happy to help out competitor Air New Zealand when mechanical problems led to passengers being stranded for several days in Hawaii. The Hawaiian Airline began flying to New Zealand months ago and its senior vice president of marketing, Avi Mannis, said there were encouraging results, especially with passengers flying on to the United States mainland. Every new route has a learning curve and takes a while to develop but we have been very pleased with the growth of traffic between New Zealand and Hawaii, he said during a visit to Auckland. During the past few years the Airline has invested heavily in its long haul network, rapidly expanding the number of Asia Pacific destinations, but is stemming recent losses. All routes had unique challenges, he said. They are l...

New integrated AMAN/CFM helps New Zealand halve Inflight delays New Zealand recorded its lowest level of Inflight delays in the quarter covering May, June and July 2014, down 52% on the same period from the previous two years. The country’s Air navigation services provider (ANSP), Airways New Zealand, said deployment of an integrated Air traffic flow and arrival management system was largely responsible for the lowest Inflight delay minutes ever recorded across New Zealand’s four largest Airports Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington and Queenstown.  At Auckland Airport, the improved results were a direct outcome of integrating Barco’s OSYRIS Arrival Manager (AMAN) tool into Airways’ Collaborative Flow Manager (CFM) system in April 2013, for arrivals, according to Airways COO Pauline Lamb. She said the Inflight delay reductions were evidence that the system was delivering real savings to our Airlines, both financial and environmental, without impacting on safety or serv...

Huge Ball of Light Hits Air New Zealand Flight NZ5070 A massive ball of light has hit Air New Zealand two minutes before it was due to land in Auckland.  Jen Donoghue, a passenger in the plane, described seeing a big ball of light hit the plane with a loud, massive bang.  Donoghue recalled that she had only been in four Flights in her life with the fourth plane struck by lightning. When she saw the light and heard the sound, she thought the plane's engine had blown up. According to reports, Air New Zealand Flight NZ5070 was on its way to Auckland from Palmerston North. When the plane, an ATR 72 turboprop, was struck, a Flight attendant sitting close to the cockpit was quick to react. She told the New Zealand Herald that other passengers inside the plane began freaking out. The Flight attendant was confused while she was looking around the plane. Donoghue said the female Flight attendant seated at the back announced in a calm voice that an Aircraft getting stru...

Aerial Topdressing Scheme Flies Away With Top Award A safety programme developed by the Agricultural Aviation Industry to protect the environment has won a major award. The New Zealand Agricultural Aviation Association (NZAAA) Aircare programme received the Richard Pearse Trophy for Innovative Excellence in the New Zealand Aviation Industry, named in honour of the New Zealand pioneer Aviator and inventor, at last month's Aviation New Zealand conference. Aircare was an integrated environmental safety and Flight safety programme that stopped contamination of waterways by fertilisers and sprays, NZAAA chairman Alan Beck, of Eltham, said. More than half the industry is accredited to Aircare, which NZAAA developed three years ago. It provides a code of practice for noise abatement, Firefighting and the Aerial application of agrichemicals, fertiliser and vertebrate toxic agents like 1080. Landcorp uses only Aircare accredited operators. Beck said the industry's adoptio...

Air New Zealands regional Airline economics impact As Air New Zealand’s regional affairs manager sees me spend a lot of time on the road visiting the 25 domestic destinations the Airline operates to no matter where I travel I find myself being asked similar questions one of the most common relates to perceived high fares for travel on regional services. While in Gisborne recently to speak with a range of business and community stakeholders I was questioned about the pricing of our Gisborne Wellington services compared with Gisborne Auckland services. The reality is that the Aviation Industry is complex and we could probably do a better job of explaining the challenges faced in operating to regional New Zealand ports. With that in mind, I would like to take this opportunity to share a little of the presentation that I normally give as I am travelling around the country to help explain the realities of Airline Economics which, of course, drive the pricing of our fares. ...

SAERCO receives advanced simulator training in New Zealand A Technical Specialist from SAERCO in Madrid visited New Zealand recently to undertake advanced Technical Training on the Airways Total Control Air Traffic Control simulators. The Spanish Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) has won contracts over recent years for the provision of ATC services to Airports across Spain, and earlier this year purchased Total Control simulators to assist in its Training of Air Traffic Controllers. SAERCO is the first Spanish private ANSP to provide AFIS, ATC and CNS services, and is certified according to European requirements. Developed by Airways in partnership with New Zealand based 3D graphics experts Animation Research Ltd, Total Control software capabilities include a full 360° tower simulator, an LCD tower simulator, a desktop simulator for use in towers and a radar simulator. It also features a user friendly interface, high quality graphics, and easily adaptable exercises that...