Thursday 30 April 2015

Air New Zealand: Celebrating 75 years

On 30 April 1940 Tasman Empire Airways Limited (TEAL) – later to become Air New Zealand – operated its first scheduled flight between Auckland and Rose Bay, Sydney on the impressive Short S30 flying boat Aotearoa.

On 30 April 2015, 75 years later, Air New Zealand will celebrate this significant historical milestone with a re-enactment of the inaugural flight on a Harbour City Ferry.

Air New Zealand are taking Harbour City Ferry passengers back to 1940 by transforming the interior of Sydney's iconic Lady Herron ferry into a replica of the Solent aircraft.

The exhibition will remain on the Lady Herron for one week and will reach approximately 1,000 commuters per day.

Air New Zealand: Celebrating 75 years

As New Zealand's national carrier, Air New Zealand and its brand are an integral part of the history and fabric of New Zealand having played a crucial role in facilitating tourism, education, business and trade for more than seven decades.

While technology has certainly enhanced the comfort and experience of flying over the past 75 years, one thing has remained the same and that is the airline's purpose to connect people and provide an exceptional customer experience

To continue achieving this Air New Zealand is significantly investing in new, state of the art aircraft and the adoption of the very latest technologies to ensure travel on Air New Zealand is easy, seamless and above all else enjoyable.

On 30 April 1940 Tasman Empire Airways Limited (TEAL) – later to become Air New Zealand – operated its first scheduled flight between Auckland and Sydney.

After nine hours of flying the flight – operated by the Short S30 flying boat Aotearoa and carrying nine passengers – landed at Rose Bay, Sydney.

Officialdom marked the event with around 50 people attending a ceremony in the pre-dawn darkness before take-off from Auckland. The flight, which marked an important stage in New Zealand's development as a nation, was attended by dignitaries including the Minister of Aviation.

The airline has certainly come a long way - these days the Auckland – Sydney flight takes just over three hours and is operated by Air New Zealand's state of the art jet fleet, including the 787-9 Dreamliner for which the airline was the global launch customer.

To mark the special occasion, the airline will operate a special themed service on the route.

While the service will be flown by the most modern and advanced aircraft in Air New Zealand's fleet, the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, onboard it'll be a step back in time with a 1940's menu and a parade of the airline's most fashionable crew uniforms through the years.

Safety videos

  • Air New Zealand continues to create buzz and attract international attention with its reinvention of the traditional inflight safety video – our latest offering 'The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made' features cast members from The Hobbit films and has clocked up more than 24 million views online
  • In 2009, the airline launched its “Bare Essentials” safety video which featured staff wearing nothing but body paint. The launch of the video attracted media attention from CNN, BBC, The Telegraph, Channel 7 Australia and The New York Times
  • Collectively the airline's safety videos have had more than 50 million views online

Network

  • For a remote island destination such as New Zealand, air travel is crucial for both inbound and outbound tourism – the airline operates a comprehensive network with more than 4,000 flights each week to more than 50 destinations.

The exhibition: Air New Zealand 75 years: Our nation. The world. Connected


Air New Zealand launched a free retrospective exhibition to celebrate its 75th anniversary at the country's national museum Te Papa in Wellington in December 2014.

The exhibition – at Te Papa though until June - celebrates the history of the airline and its people across the decades while also giving visitors a glimpse into the future too.

Since opening, the exhibition has attracted more than 200,000 visitors! More than 68,000 people have experienced the virtual reality cabin, a small glimpse into the future of flying. In addition, the Boeing 737 cockpit nose, situated outside Te Papa, has also proven popular with more than 68,000 people trying the Captain's seat for size.

The exhibition took a huge amount of work to pull together. In fact, initially it was estimated that 400 items of footage would need to be catalogued. The actual number turned out to be close to 6,000!

More than 1,700 boxes of heritage items and more than 5,000 photos, advertisements and posters were sorted, along with a staggering 2,220 minutes of video footage digitised.

In a special partnership with another iconic New Zealand organisation, the airline also teamed up with New Zealand Post to issue a commemorative stamp collection to celebrate 75 years of operation. The five stamps showcase the role that Air New Zealand has played in connecting our nation to the world.

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Hashtag: #AirNZ75
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