Air Transport
This page has an air transport focus although not exclusively so. It is divided into sections on overseas transport departments and agencies, relevant New Zealand departments and agencies, relevant New Zealand ministerial statements and speeches on international air transport, New Zealand air services agreements, New Zealand economic regulation of international airlines, Air New Zealand restructuring, international and airline industry organisations, international aviation-related sites, and other transport sites. I have similar pages on Land Transport and Maritime Transport with a New Zealand focus.
Air New Zealand Boeing 767-200 at Tongatapu (2002)©
I work as a Principal Adviser in the Air Services Team at the New Zealand Ministry of Transport. My major responsibilities lie in the area of international air services (New Zealand has negotiated bilateral air services agreements with around 47 partner governments).
Overseas transport departments and agencies
Links to our overseas counterparts:
The AltaVista World site can be used for roughly translating sites from French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Russian into English.
The Australian Productivity Commission has released a very interesting Final Report on International Air Services and its site also has submissions and transcripts from the related hearings (Adobe Acrobat Reader is required). The Australian Government's response to the Commission's final report was released on 3 June 1999.
On 21 February 2006 Australia's Transport Minister made a media release on Australian international air services policy (the related press conference transcript NEW).
The Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport has been undertaking a study on Air Liberalization and the Canadian airports system. In October 2006 the Canadian Minister of Transport released a consultation document on a New International Air Policy and Blue Sky: Canada's New International Air Policy was issued on 27 November 2006.
In October 2006 the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority released Ownership and Control Liberalisation: A Discussion Paper.
Relevant New Zealand departments and agencies
We work closely with a number of New Zealand government departments including:
We also work with the New Zealand Tourism Board who have a Corporate Website and the PureNZ site for visitors to New Zealand.
New Zealand ministerial statements and speeches on international air transport
[The links in this section are being reestablished as the Beehive URLs have been changed.]
The current Minister of Transport is Hon Steven Joyce. Recent Transport Ministers have included Hon Annette King, Hon David Parker, Hon Pete Hodgson, Hon Paul Swain and Hon Mark Gosche.
In a speech to the AIA on 22 July 2005 the Minister of Transport Safety outline recent progress in air services negotiations and current work.
In a speech to the AAPA on 17 November 2000 the then Minister outlined aviation policy priorities. In a speech to the AIA on 21 July 2000 and a speech to BARNZ on 23 August 2000 the then Minister outlined air services negotiating priorities. (The last speech outlining such priorities was made by a previous Minister on 2 July 1999.)
In 1998 the then Minister released an updated statement of New Zealand's International Air Transport Policy.
Relevant ministerial media statements have included one on airline investment policy issued on 20 November 2000, one relating to Virgin Blue issued on 24 November 2000, one on investment in Air New Zealand by Qantas issued on 18 December 2002 and those on new air services arrangements with (dates are when the statement was released):
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New Zealand air services agreements
A media statement on the "ground-breaking" New Zealand-United Kingdom Air Services Agreement initialled on 27 May 2005 has been released in London. The Agreement was signed in Wellington on 26 July 2005.
On 23 June 2005 a media statement was released in Brussels on the New Zealand-European Union "horizontal" aviation Agreement initialled on 14 March 2005 and signed on 21 June 2006. On 12 September 2005 the European Commission announced that, subject to the agreement of member states (yet to be obtained), it proposes to open aviation negotiations with New Zealand (see also the related Communication from the Commission - Developing a Community civil aviation policy towards New Zealand).
The full text of the Multilateral Agreement on the Liberalization of International Air Transportation signed (on 1 May 2001) by Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States of America and in effect since 21 December 2001 is available on line (the text as negotiated is also available).
The full texts of the Australia - New Zealand Memorandum of Understanding (signed on 20 November 2000) and Air Services Agreement (signed on 8 August 2002) are also available. Amongst other things these new arrangements replaced the Australia - New Zealand Single Aviation Market Arrangements (signed on 19 September 1996).
New Zealand economic regulation of international airlines
New Zealanders have free access on the web to New Zealand legislation. This includes the international air services licensing and international air carriage competition provisions of the Civil Aviation Act. Pamphlets relating to New Zealand's licensing requirements for scheduled international air services and non-scheduled flight approvals are available on the web.
The conditions the Australian Government imposed on Air New Zealand's purchase of Ansett were announced on 13 June 2000.
Papers from 2001 relating to the recapitalisation of Air New Zealand were released by the New Zealand Government on 10 April 2002.
On 9 December 2002 joint applications concerning a proposed strategic alliance and an equity investment by Qantas were made by Air New Zealand and Qantas to the competition authorities in New Zealand and Australia:
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A New Zealand High Court judgement (.pdf download) dated 17 September 2004 rejected the proposed alliance on competition grounds.
On 12 October 2004 the Australian Competition Tribunal ruled in favour of the proposed alliance (the full ruling was released on 16 May 2005).
On 18 April 2006 Air New Zealand and Qantas sought approval from the New Zealand Minister of Transport (application) and the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (application and submissions) for approval for a Tasman Network Agreement (TNA). Further information relating to the New Zealand application is available on the Ministry of Transport's International Air Carriage Competition page. The applications were subsequently withdrawn. On 26 September 2006 the Minister of Transport answered a series of written Parliamentary Questions from Heather Roy MP about the New Zealand - United Arab Emirates air services arrangements and Emirates' services to New Zealand (see 13367, 13368, 13369, 13370, 13371, 13372, 13373, 13374, 13375, 13377, 13378, 13460).
International and airline industry organisations
Travel and tourism industry organisations
International aviation-related information
Other civil aviation industry-related sites:
Academic sites:
Academic home pages:
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Interesting speeches, research articles and papers available online include (the first set is generally by academics and the second set by government and business practitioners):
The IATA tariffs setting system has been under intense scrutiny by competition authorities including the European Commission (EC), the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission and the US Department of Transportation. The 2004 IATA response to the EC consultation paper is of interest.
Other transport sites
The relevant news group on the Internet is misc.transport.air-industry
Last modified 23 August 2009