Posted on 07/03/2004 5:53:23 PM PDT by NZerFromHK
SAN FRANCISCO - Air New Zealand broke its nine-year drought on inaugural routes yesterday when its Lord of the Rings promo plane coasted onto the San Francisco tarmac and released 50 jetlagged guests into a day of celebration and champagne.
The direct route, flying three times a week in each direction, is expected to become a valuable connection for tourists and exports.
By 2006 Air New Zealand's new Boeing 777s - ordered last month and due to arrive in September next year - are likely to provide daily flights to San Francisco.
The airline has been considering the route for a decade.
However, recent boosts to New Zealand's profile, increased tourism, and dissatisfaction with Los Angeles airport - where Air New Zealand has been flying since 1965 - made it viable.
Logistics for inaugural flights are tricky; training, for example, was needed for around 60 pilots for the San Francisco route.
Air New Zealand's Boeing 747 - decorated with a Frodo the hobbit image and carrying 350 paying passengers - was washed down with blasts from two lime-green fire trucks as it arrived.
The current schedule means 60,000 seats a year will be available each way, and 40,000 of those will need to be filled to make the route comfortably profitable.
Air New Zealand chief executive Ralph Norris, who arrived on the flight with Tourism New Zealand chief executive George Hickton and Auckland Mayor John Banks, was escorted into the airport's museum flanked by a kapa haka group of airline staff.
A Maori welcome, practised for two months, met with whoops and cheers from the assembled dignitaries in suits, and media in jandals and jeans, before the business of celebrating the flight's arrival began.
It was the similarities between New Zealand and San Francisco - biotech, wine, a liberal political outlook - that speakers focused on when they talked of the positives that could come from the direct flights.
Expatriate New Zealand businessman Tony Wilson, who is based just east of San Francisco and owns the acclaimed The Pasta Shop and Kaikoura Lodge, sees the flights as a huge opportunity to bring Americans to New Zealand.
Rob Taylor, New Zealand consul-general in Los Angeles, said he believed the direct flights would help New Zealand companies looking to raise capital from American investors.
Norris said the new route was expected to reduce demand for flights from New Zealand to Los Angeles, which will be cut from 28 a week to 25.
He said the financial return on the three San Francisco flights was expected to more than make up for losing the three flights to Los Angeles.
"People want to fly point to point, not want to go through a hub and add stress," Norris.
"People tell us they don't like flying through LA. If they can do it direct there is much more appeal."
...similarities between New Zealand and San Francisco - biotech, wine, a liberal political outlook...
I always tell people that San Francisco Bay Area is more New Zealand than the United States norm. Most US Democrats would be left-wing National (party of the right for NZ) or right-wing Labour by NZ standards.
During the days when I was not yet active on political discussions boards, one thing that striked me was that of the American internet pals that I know, it was only the San Francisco people who mentioned left-wing ideas that I frequently come across at university, workplace, or informal parties here in New Zealand. All other Americans (including Bostonians) are more conservative. By the standard of this country, Bill Clinton is far too right-wing, so many New Zealanders tolerated him rather than liked him.
Air New Zealand's Boeing 747 - decorated with a Frodo the hobbit image and carrying 350 paying passengers
If it had 350 passengers, and they let 50 off, does that mean the other 300 had to stay on?
As a side note, I believe San Francisco has the honor of being the only airport that Southwest Airlines has abandoned.
I agree there could be hope, particularly in light of the fact that the left seems to be losing steam these days and our conservatives have far more spine than much of the 1990s. But New Zealand is a weird country from much of the American conservative POV: like Luxembourg (a pro-free-trade member of the camp of weasels), NZ is much more conservative on international trade and internal economics than most US Republicans (including Bush), and most of our government departments run less like bureaucracy (at the moment) than their US federal counterparts, and fiscally even our Left (Labour) don't dare to raise taxes saying that this harms the economy. BUT on education NZ is about just equal to the US liberals' vision, and on issues like indigenous peoples' rights, "equal rights", the UN, defence, etc we are actually far more leftist. At the moment Helen Clark is trying to run a cunning game of sending troops (but they are non-combative BTW) to Iraq because she knows too well that Australia's US-supporting stance could earn them a FTA and NZ would be left behind. Everyone knows that she does so not because she supports the US, but rather as a part of realpolitik thinking. Although she mentions far more about the People's Republic of China in public, she knows deep down the hearts that a free trade deal with the US than the PRC is the key to Labour's electoral success.
But there is hope though. We could have a conservative government by the end of next year - our conservatives show far more spine trying to topple the left-wing dogma present in NZ since the 1970s: anti-nuclear laws, UN pandering posture, Maori special rights, education's status quo, etc. I personally believe that these culture wars are far more essential these days to ensure our earlier episodes of economic and social welfare reforms survive.
My guess is these 50 are "special guests" for the party, while the other 300 are just ordinary passengers.
BUMPping
Linking an Airlines new Arrival Point to a country's politics seems bizarre, unless one is on a crusade and out to score points.
At the moment Helen Clark is trying to run a cunning game of sending troops (but they are non-combative BTW) to Iraq because she knows too well that Australia's US-supporting stance could earn them a FTA and NZ would be left behind.
You have carefully left out New Zealand's commitment to Afghanistan at the start of hostilities there, and the continued presence of NZ Special Forces in the Afghan theatre. NZ's combat engineers in Iraq still find that of course repairing infrastructure there does not mean that they do not suffer mortar attack, and are not injured by IED's. I do not see you mentioning the NZ Naval/Orion assistance in the Maritime Interdiction Operation either.
....she knows deep down the hearts (sic) that a free trade deal with the US than the (sic)PRC is the key to Labour's electoral success.
I guess you must have some inside knowledge here. The Chinese community in New Zealand appear to have taken Dear Leader Clark to heart going by the receptions she receives from them, e.g when Touch China Television started broadcasting. Maybe this is politeness. And I don't know "NZer", maybe you were there too.
....our conservatives show far more spine trying to topple the left-wing dogma present in NZ since the 1970s: anti-nuclear laws, UN pandering posture, Maori special rights, education's status quo, etc.
I take it you have gained New Zealand citizenship by now? The above comment is your opinion, and is welcome, though not necessarily true. A mix of Labour and National have shaped the political scene since the 70's. My personal opinion is that New Zealand hasn't done too badly in balancing native "rights" with those same people merging into a modern society. Certainly we don't see in NZ the situation in Australia of many Aboriginals seeming to live almost no differently than 200 years ago. Of course the balancing forces at work will ensure that any rights or proposed rights that are not due are challenged in due time- hence Don Brash's and the National Party's surge in the polls.
Education's status quo??
Look, I am as much a New Zealander as you do, and I think my country is seriously wrong on what Americans call "culture wars" and I want to voice my dissatisfaction to it. If I don't care a bit about New Zealand I can move back to Hong Kong, just like 90% of my friends have done. Mind you, once they have been back to HK they will have nothing to do with NZ for the rest of their lives, apart from the fact that they have to go to the NZ Consulate to get new passports' application forms. In that case, I wouldn't care a bit if NZ were to disappear completely from the earth tomorrow.
About defence - sorry, but the motive of NZ sending soldiers, sorry, peacekeepers, is to fulfill the UN mandate on fuzzy concepts like peace and justice. Sorry, not fighting terrorism. And certainly not fighting Islamic extremism.
I disagree with the current thinking of the whole Maori issues because the whole concept of bicultural founding of NZ is wrong - in fact, I'm about several cycles to the right on the current "consensus" of NZ. Fundamentally, it is pleasing to see Don Brash see that the whole biculturalism concept is a sham - an inevitable outcome of fitting an naive understanding of justice onto a group level (race in this case) which is totally inappropriate.
Education - I don't need to mention things like NCEA, zoning, have I? Thank God I went to Auckland Grammar School but many other were not that lucky - their future is ruined with undertrained teachers and a left-wing propaganda disguised as education - "reproduction, recycling, and racism".
If you went to Auckland Grammer, I assume, going by your use of the English language, you are still relatively young. I don't think you are yet at the point where you can use the phrase "my country" because you do not demonstrate a love of your new country that transcends politics. Call it patriotism.
If I don't care a bit about New Zealand I can move back to Hong Kong, just like 90% of my friends have done. Mind you, once they have been back to HK they will have nothing to do with NZ for the rest of their lives,....... In that case, I wouldn't care a bit if NZ were to disappear completely from the earth tomorrow.
I think the above quote is a key indication of where you are coming from. Your friends must be in a special bracket, because as I look at Auckland now compared to 30 years ago, the number of Asian faces is astounding, but not unwelcome. In the 2001 census, around 158,000 Asians were shown to be living in the Auckland region alone, out of a total Auckland population of around one million people. The message to leave obviously hasn't reached them.
About defence - sorry, but the motive of NZ sending soldiers, sorry, peacekeepers, is to fulfill the UN mandate on fuzzy concepts like peace and justice. Sorry, not fighting terrorism. And certainly not fighting Islamic extremism.
You may care to metion that to the New Zealand soldiers on active duty, and those that have been killed and wounded carrying out the "fuzzy concepts". they may have a quite different view to your own.
I disagree with the current thinking of the whole Maori issues because the whole concept of bicultural founding of NZ is wrong...
Unfortunately, when the foundations of modern New Zealand were set by the agreement between the English Governor of the time and the native tribes in 1840, there were only two races at the signing table.
Education - I don't need to mention things like NCEA, zoning, have I? (sic) Thank God I went to Auckland Grammar School but many other were not that lucky - their future is ruined with undertrained teachers and a left-wing propaganda disguised as education - "reproduction, recycling, and racism".
I think the jury is still out on the merits or otherwise of the new NCEA student assessment system. There seem to be as many for as against. Zoning? What is your beef with that? A school has to set a limit on its intake somehow. The "undertrained teachers and propaganda disguised as education" has still somehow catapulted NZ student abilities into the top echlon of worldwide capabilities.
I've posted the following paragraph before, but here it is again for your benefit-
The "Program for International Student Assessment" (PISA) was commissioned by the OECD in 2000 to assess 15yr old students in 32 countries, 28 of them members of OECD. - New Zealand has the third highest mean score for reading literacy- beaten out by only Finland and Canada (and actual highest proportion at the top level) - New Zealand has the third highest mean score for mathematical literacy (beaten out by only Japan and Korea) - New Zealand has the sixth highest mean score for scientific literacy, the USA fourteenth.
Perhaps for reasons like this New Zealand produced people such as Ernest Rutherford, father of the atom, and scientific giants like William Pickering who headed up NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1954 to 1976.
,,, you'd most likely find that the flight was going onto London or somewhere else in Europe and only fifty passengers were disembarking at SFO. In the past Air New Zealand has run flights to Frankfurt thru Tahiti and Dallas/Fort Worth. In recent years though, all their flights have run thru Honolulu and LAX.
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