Mount Cook Airline

Mount Cook Airline
IATA code :	NM
ICAO code :	NZM
Call sign :	MOUNTCOOK
Founding:	1920 (as New Zealand Aero Transport Company)
Seat:	Christchurch , New Zealand
Turnstile :	Auckland Christchurch Wellington
Home airport :	Christchurch
Alliance :	Star Alliance
Frequent Flyer Program :	Airpoints
Fleet size:	29 (+ 7 orders)
Aims:	national
Website:	www.airnewzealand.de

Mount Cook Airline is a New Zealand regional airline based in Christchurch and based at Christchurch International Airport . It is a subsidiary of Air New Zealand and flies under its Air New Zealand Link umbrella brand .

history

Hawker-Siddeley HS 748 of the Mount Cook Airline in 1983

The origin of the Mount Cook Airline is the New Zealand Aero Transport Company from Timaru, founded in 1920 by Rodolph Lysaght Wigley . The company operated six former Airco DH4 of the RAF and the Avro 504 for sightseeing flights and other possible applications. In 1930 Wigley founded Queenstown-Mount Cook Airways with his son Harry . Harry later received the title Sir Henry Wigley and remained with the company as Managing Director until 1979 and as Chairman until his death in 1980. The company operated charter flights to the Southern Lakes, Milford and Mount Cook National Park until its suspension in World War II .

In 1952 the operations were resumed and in 1954 the merger took place with NZ Aero Transport Company to Mount Cook Air Service Ltd . She specialized in sightseeing flights, agricultural flights and rescue missions . Sir Henry mastered the landing problems on the Tasman , Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers with self-developed ski runners , the beginning of air tourism to the ski regions and glaciers with small planes. As Mount Cook Ski Planes , sightseeing flights to the Tasman Glacier are still offered with the Cessna 185 and Pilatus PC-6 .

Mount Cook Airlines' scheduled flight operations began on November 6, 1961 with flights between Christchurch, Mount Cook, Queenstown and Te Anau with a 26-seat Douglas DC-3 . For almost 30 years the company operated a fleet of Hawker-Siddeley HS 748s, which were only replaced by ATR 72 in 1995 .

After Sir Henry's death in 1980, Air New Zealand acquired a 30% stake until December 5, 1983 and all shares in Mount Cook Airline until April 1991.

Destinations

Mount Cook Airline leads under the brand Air New Zealand Link for its parent company Air New Zealand regional flights from its three hubs in Auckland , Christchurch and Wellington from destinations throughout New Zealand at.

fleet

As of April 2019, the Mount Cook Airline fleet consists of 29 aircraft with an average age of 6.7 years:

Aircraft type	number	ordered	Remarks	Seats
ATR 72-500	7th			66
ATR 72-600	22nd	7th	replace older machines	68
total	29	7th

In the past, Mount Cook Airline used Airco DH4 , Avro RJ100 , Douglas DC-3 , Fokker F-27 and Hawker-Siddeley HS 748, among others .

See also

• List of airlines

literature

• Peter Morath: New Zealand's alpine airline. In: Airliner World , January 2020, pp. 70–75

Web links

Commons : Mount Cook Airline  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Air New Zealand website (including English, German)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Mount Cook Airline Fleet Details and History. Retrieved April 18, 2019 . 
2. ↑ ATR - Air New Zealand purchases 15 additional ATR 72-600s, November 5, 2015 (English), accessed December 17, 2016
3. ↑ planespotters.net - Production List Search, accessed January 12, 2018