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Quality Aviation Poster
Air New Zealand
Douglas DC-8-54
An Air New New Zealand McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 departing Sydney (Kingsford Smith) Airport.
The security watermark does not appear
on the poster when you purchase it.
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Some Air New Zealand history
by Samuel Brimson
It was only natural that New Zealand - a country of around three million population on two large islands in the South Pacific - should seek to develop overseas airline services to link it with the rest of the world. For many years TEAL (as Air New Zealand was previously called) held monopoly rights on the routes between its home country and Australia, while Pan American, Qantas AND British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines flew services further afield.
Air New Zealand started life with the cumbersome name of Tasman Empire Airways Limited (TEAL). It was founded in 1939 with three shareholders - the governments of New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom, holding 50, 30 and 20 per cent respectively. In the beginning TEAL's sole function was to provide passenger and freight services across the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia, an operation on which it held a monopoly. The first flight left Auckland for Sydney on 30 April 1939.
The development in the South Pacific of airfields suitable for land-based aircraft was slow prior to World War II, and so it was to the flying boat that airlines serving the region turned for their primary operations. To maintain standardisation with the Qantas and Imperial Airways fleets, TEAL opted for the Short S.23 Empire Flying. Three were ordered, but only two delivered before the outbreak of the war; the third was diverted to the war effort on the North Atlantic.
By August 1939 TEAL was flying Auckland-Sydney three times each week, connecting with the Pan American clipper at Auckland for its flight to San Francisco. Even though New Zealand was spared the ravages of the conflict to the north, the war greatly hindered TEAL's early development. As the airline's own contribution to the war effort, aircraft and crews from TEAL undertook regular reconnaissance flights throughout the South Pacific.
In 1946 TEAL received its first new (well, war surplus) aircraft since the start of the war: the Short S.25 Sandringham Flying Boat. With a passenger capacity of 30 and cruising speed of 275 km/h, it was placed on the trans-Tasman run in December. In 1948 the Sandringhams were taken out of service after repeated engine-cooling problems. As the grounding lasted five months, to maintain its trans-Tasman monopoly, TEAL had to source several Douglas DC-4s from Trans Australia Airlines on a short-term charter basis. The following year TEAL's preference for water-based aircraft was maintained when the Short S.45 Mark IV Solent Flying Boat joined the fleet.
New Zealand's domestic airline - National Airways Corporation (NAC) - had been operating a service between Auckland and Suva in Fiji which, in 1950, was handed over to TEAL. This left NAC free to concentrate on domestic operations. That same year TEAL established a twice weekly Wellington-Sydney service and the following year Melbourne and Christchurch were linked. This time TEAL used land-based aircraft Douglas DC-4s chartered from Qantas. To the north and east of New Zealand TEAL expanded into the South Pacific. The Coral Route took in Papeete, Tahiti, Suva and Aitutaki in the Cook Islands. Apia, Samoa was later added as a stopover between Suva and Aitutaki.
In 1953 it was decided to terminate the operations of British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines, jointly owned by Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. BCPA was flying regular services from Sydney to San Francisco and Vancouver using four Douglas DC-6s. Qantas took over the Pacific route using its own Super Constellation aircraft, leaving the DC-6s to TEAL. These were the first land-based aircraft the company had owned. One of the BCPA aircraft had crashed into a mountain on approach to San Francisco just weeks before the changeover.
That same year the British Government sold its 20 per cent shareholding in TEAL to the Australian Government. The airline was now equally owned by Australia and New Zealand - a situation that would lead to intense trans-Tasman bitterness over the choice of future aircraft.
A massive airlift was undertaken in 1956 to fly thousands of New Zealanders to the Olympic Games in Melbourne. Using Super Constellations chartered from Qantas and DC-4s chartered from Qantas, Sabena and TAA, TEAL ferried over 4000 people across the Tasman for the event. The following year a regular, scheduled Auckland-Melbourne service was inaugurated.
As the age of jets approached, TEAL's management proposed that the airline acquire either Convair CV.880s or the deHavilland DH.106 Comet 4 to put it on a similar footing to Qantas which had ordered the Boeing 707. The New Zealand Government was keen for the airline to have its own jet fleet. However, the Australian Government declared TEAL should standardize with Qantas which had purchased Lockheed L.188 Electras for regional routes.
The considerable outcry in New Zealand was at least partly responsible for New Zealand acquiring total control of TEAL shortly afterwards. Another six years passed before TEAL acquired its own jet aircraft; but in the meantime the Electras went into service on 1 December 1959 on the Auckland-Sydney service. Auckland-Melbourne commenced one week later. In 1960 the last of the Solent flying boats was withdrawn and a year later the last ex-BCPA DC-6 was pensioned off.
The year 1961 was momentous for TEAL: the first steps were taken toward making the airline truly New Zealand's international carrier. An agreement was reached by New Zealand to purchase the Australian holding for $NZ1.6 million. At the same time it was agreed TEAL's monopoly on trans-Tasman services would end, allowing Qantas to operate in competition.
TEAL ordered three Douglas DC8-52s for delivery in late 1965. It was decided to drop the uninspiring TEAL name and substitute one more in keeping with the airline's new role. On 1 April 1965 TEAL became Air New Zealand. New routes were established between Auckland and Singapore, Hong Kong, and Los Angeles via Honolulu.
The 1970s saw Air New Zealand faced with the arrival of wide-bodied jets and the need to make a decision to re-equip. The Boeing 747 ordered by Qantas was too large for the airline, so it opted for the McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, ordering three. Its DC-8 fleet grew to six in 1971 with the lease of three from United Airlines. In 1972 all the Electras were disposed of and the first DC-10 was delivered in January 1973. A further three DC-10s were ordered for delivery in 1975.
In 1974 an interchange agreement was reached with British Airways for a one-aircraft service Auckland-London via Los Angeles, with Air New Zealand crews on the Auckland-Los Angeles sector and British Airways handling Los Angeles-London.
National Airways Corporation came into being in 1945 as a government-owned enterprise through the acquisition and merger of Union Airways of New Zealand, Air Travel (New Zealand) and Cook Strait Airways. Union had been the largest of the carriers, operating Palmerston-North Blenheim-Christchurch-Dunedin with deHavilland DH.86s. Air Travel's deHavilland Rapides had flown Wellington-Blenheim and Wellington-Nelson routes. Cook Strait Airways, smallest of the trio, had operated various services out of Hokitika with a single deHavilland Fox Moth.
NAC had begun life operating to nineteen destinations inside New Zealand as well as to Norfolk Island, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands. Most of the over-water services were gradually handed over to TEAL. Initially Douglas DC-3s and deHavilland Herons were used, superseded by Vickers V.807 Viscount and Fokker F.27 Friendships in the late 1950s. By 1968 NAC had moved to a jet-based operation with the acquisition of Boeing 737s.
On 1 April 1978 the government decided to merge Air New Zealand and NAC under the Air New Zealand name. 1979 was not a happy year for the newly merged airline. Its profitability was thrown into disarray by the worldwide grounding of DC-10s following an American Airlines crash in Chicago.
In both Australia and New Zealand in the late 1970s sightseeing flights over Antarctica became very popular and were usually operated to aid various charities. Such flights came to an abrupt halt in November 1979 when an Air New Zealand DC-10 crashed into the side of Mount Erebus, Antarctica. All 257 people aboard were killed. A lengthy Inquiry found a computer program for the flight had been changed and the crew not informed. The Chairman of the Inquiry was scathing in his criticism of a number of Air New Zealand's executive staff. This led to the resignation of Chief Executive Maurice Davis. In what was widely regarded as a panic move. the DC-10s were disposed of and replaced with Boeing 747-200Bs.
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