Origin Pacific Airways

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Origin Pacific Airways was an airline based in Nelson in New Zealand operating freight services. Until 10 August 2006, the airline also operated scheduled and charter passenger services. Its main base was at Nelson Airport (NSN). It ceased all operations on 15 September 2006

Contents 1 Code data 2 History 3 Destinations 4 Fleet 5 External links 6 References

[edit] Code data

• IATA Code: QO
• ICAO Code: OGN ^[1]
• Callsign: Origin

[edit] History

Origin Pacific Airways was established in 1996 and started operations in April 1997^[1]. The airline was owned by Robert Inglis (managing director) and Nicki Smith (50%), Mike Pero (25%) and a group of Wellington investors (25%). The airline ceased passenger operations on 10 August 2006. It then ceased all operations effective 15 September 2006. The airline experienced financial problems due to large inherited debts ^[2][3] and was unable to find investors to inject additional capital. The main competition Air NZ were helped by a New Zealand government financial bail out in 2002, which still allowed them to compete with Origin, which was a major factor contributing to their financial problems.

[edit] Destinations

Origin Pacific operated freight services in New Zealand. Until August 2006 the airline also operated domestic passenger services. On 15 September 2006, Origin announced it was to wind up the company as it had failed to secure a buyer for its freight company.

Prior to the suspension of domestic passenger services, the airline (as at January 2005) operated the services to the following scheduled destinations: Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton, Auckland, Blenheim, Napier-Hastings, Nelson, New Plymouth, Palmerston North and Wellington. Dunedin flights were discontinued from 12 January 2005.

Origin also operated code-share flights on behalf of Qantas JetConnect from mid 2001, but these were stopped by early 2004. As a result, the airline lost around 60% of its business and had struggled since.

During its operation, other destinations included Taupo, Wanganui, Tauranga, Queenstown (On behalf of Qantas), Rotorua & Invercargill.

[edit] Fleet

The Origin Pacific Airways fleet consisted of the following aircraft (at January 2005):

• 3 BAe Jetstream 31
• 5 BAe Jetstream 41

During its operation it also operated the following aircraft:

• 3 BAe Jetstream 32
• 1 Cessna 421
• 2 ATR-72
• 2 de Havilland Dash 8
• 2 Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner

and subleased from other carriers to operate adhoc Origin Charters and RPT operations:

• 737-200
• Banderantie
• Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner
• Convair

[edit] External links

• Origin Pacific Airways official website at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine
• Details on AviationPage New Zealand

[edit] References

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