New Zealand Post to upgrade air fleet in 2016

New Zealand Post is set to take on three Boeing 737-400 freighter aircraft to boost its overnight delivery services for packets and parcels. The company said today that it was expecting the aircraft to be fully in service for its Express Couriers Ltd (ECL) business from May 2016, to replace its current fleet comprising one Boeing 737-300 aircraft and two Fokker F27 Friendships.

The new aircraft will fly between Auckland, Palmerston North and Christchurch, linking in with New Zealand Post’s nationwide processing, road line-haul and delivery networks from these locations.

Brian Roche, the New Zealand Post chief executive, said the new aircraft would be faster, providing greater volume capacity and reliability.

He said the move would be important for the company’s growing express parcels and packets business, and as well as bringing cost savings, would mean no more “significant” change is needed in the fleet for a decade.

“With more people shopping online than ever before, the demand for overnight parcel delivery has grown and this will continue,” he said.

“These aircraft will help to future-proof our network, giving New Zealand Post the ability to support our customers’ service requirements and meet the growing market for the next 10 to 15 years.”

The new 737-400 aircraft will offer a payload of 17,800kg each, compared to 15,000kg in the existing 737-300 aircraft and just 4,800kg in the Fokker F27 aircraft.

New Zealand Post said it will lease the new aircraft through a joint venture between Airworks Flight Operations Ltd, which is the current airline services supplier for the ECL business, and Freightways subsidiary Fieldair Holdings Ltd.

The new aircraft will also be used by Freightways, expanding the existing load-sharing air freight partnership between the two companies.

New Zealand Post said it expected a net reduction of 210 equivalent tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year by upgrading its fleet.