VATNZ SNO - 6th April 2008

[Mark Richards]

Sunday Night Ops for 6th April 2008 - Farewell NZPM International Services NZPM <--> YSSY or YBBN

 

 

This Sunday our SNO (Sunday Night Operations) is farewelling International Services from Palmerston North airport. Last Saturday, 29th March saw the end of an era with the final flights of Air New Zealand subsidiary, Freedom Air. Most Freedom Air services are being taken over by Air New Zealand from 31 March 2008. Unfortunately, Air New Zealand decided not to continue international services from Palmerston North, choosing to have p[Mod - Happy Thoughts]engers connect via domestic services to either Wellington or Auckland.

 

We are marking the demise of international flights from Palmerston North by flying the final two international routes operated by Freedom Air up until last Saturday, with flights over the Tasman Sea to and from Sydney and Brisbane.

 

We are encouraging pilots to travel in either direction between Palmerston North and at least one of Sydney or Brisbane.

 

Total flight time one-way should be somewhere in the region of 3 - 3.5 hours depending on your direction of travel, aircraft type, and prevailing winds.

 

Pilots wishing to make a return trip will probably need to leave earlier than the event start time and/or fly at 4x speed during the Oceanic portion of the trip. Aircraft travelling at accelerated speed may be [Mod - Happy Thoughts]igned a different flight level to keep them separated from 1x traffic.

 

Freedom Air have operated both the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737-300 on this route over the years, but feel free to bring whatever you feel you can land safely at Palmerston North!

 

• Departure Time: Sunday 6th April 2008 1900 NZST
  
• Flight Time: 3 - 3.5 hours / sector
  
• Flight Plan Route:
  NZPM / YSSY: PM Q559 TANEN M636 SY
  NZPM / YBBN: PM Q651 GULUT M639 SAVER G329 BN
  YSSY / NZPM: SY M636 TANEN Q559 PM
  YBBN / NZPM: BN J208 LHI M639 GULUT Q651 PM

 

To indicate your intention to fly, book your flight using vRoute - large numbers of bookings in vRoute attract additional traffic and your booking will appear on the VATNZ Homepage.

 

* Charts/Airspace Info: Available from the VATNZ Airspace Reference site.

 

If you have any questions please feel free to email me, or reply to this thread.