Origin Pacific Airways was an

airline An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in wh ...

based in

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

in New Zealand. Its main base was at Nelson Airport (NSN). It ceased passenger operations on 10 August 2006, and its residual freight operations on 15 September 2006.

History

Starting out

Origin Pacific Airways was established by , Robert Inglis and Nicki Smith in 1996 and started operations in April 1997. Inglis and Smith had previously established

Air Nelson Air Nelson was a regional airline based in Nelson, New Zealand. It was founded as an independent airline in 1979. Air New Zealand took a 50% shareholding in 1988 and 100% ownership in 1995. Air Nelson operated services on provincial routes under ...

which they subsequently sold to

Air New Zealand Air New Zealand Limited () is the flag carrier airline of New Zealand. Based in Auckland, the airline operates scheduled passenger flights to 20 domestic and 30 international destinations in 18 countries, primarily around and within the Pacif ...

Mike Pero Michael Pero (born 26 February 1960) is a New Zealand businessman and entrepreneur. Professional history Pero founded his mortgage broking business in 1991. In 2011, Pero established a real estate company under the same brand name. In recen ...

and a group of

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

investors each also owned 25% shares in the company.

Code-share with Qantas Jetconnect

Origin operated code-share flights on behalf of

Jetconnect Jetconnect Ltd. was a wholly owned subsidiary of Qantas that has its head office in Auckland, New Zealand. Originally established in July 2002 as a New Zealand-based airline, the company has since stopped operating as an airline but continues to ...

(a subsidiary of

Qantas Qantas Airways Limited ( ) is the flag carrier of Australia and the country's largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations. It is the world's third-oldest airline still in operation, having been founde ...

) from mid 2001 to early 2004. When the code-share agreement was cancelled the airline lost around 60% of its business. Routes served on behalf of Jetconnect included Rotorua and Queenstown. Origin operated ATR-72-212 and

Dash 8 The De Havilland Canada DHC-8, commonly known as the Dash 8, is a series of turboprop-powered regional airliners, introduced by de Havilland Canada (DHC) in 1984. DHC was later bought by Boeing in 1988, then by Bombardier in 1992; then by ...

100 and 300 aircraft on those routes. Jetconnect took over these routes using their own

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton Factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the Boeing 707, 7 ...

aircraft. The loss of the code-share with Jetconnect was a major blow to the airline. They lost access to Qantas's international network and had to compete against the government backed

and with a competing Jetconnect. The code-share loss thus resulted in the scaling back of jobs and aircraft.

Collapse

The airline ceased passenger operations on 10 August 2006 when the airline could not service its debts to airports and to

Inland Revenue The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation t ...

. At the time the airline ceased passenger operations, Origin's passenger numbers were up more than usual. Freight operations finished on 15 September 2006.

Destinations

Prior to the suspension of domestic passenger services, the airline (as at January 2005) operated services to the following scheduled destinations:

Fleet

During its operation Origin Pacific operated the following aircraft: *4 BAe

Jetstream 31 The British Aerospace Jetstream is a small twin-turboprop airliner, with a pressurised fuselage, developed as the ''Jetstream 31'' from the earlier Handley Page Jetstream. A larger version of the Jetstream was also manufactured, the British ...

*3 BAe

Jetstream 32 The British Aerospace Jetstream is a small twin-turboprop airliner, with a pressurised fuselage, developed as the ''Jetstream 31'' from the earlier Handley Page Jetstream. A larger version of the Jetstream was also manufactured, the Britis ...

*5 BAe

Jetstream 41 The British Aerospace Jetstream 41 is a turboprop-powered feederliner and regional airliner, designed by British Aerospace as a stretched version of the popular Jetstream 31. Intended to compete directly with 30-seat aircraft like the Embraer ...

Cessna 421 The Cessna 421 Golden Eagle is an American six or seven seat twin-engined light transport aircraft, developed in the 1960s by Cessna as a pressurized version of the earlier Cessna 411. Development The Cessna 421 was first produced in May 196 ...

*2 ATR-72-212 *3 DHC-8-100 *2

DHC-8-300 The De Havilland Canada DHC-8, commonly known as the Dash 8, is a series of turboprop-powered regional airliners, introduced by de Havilland Canada (DHC) in 1984. DHC was later bought by Boeing in 1988, then by Bombardier Aerospace, Bombard ...

*1 Fairchild-Swearingen Metroliner III *3 Fairchild-Swearingen Metroliner 23

References

External links

*
Details on AviationPage New Zealand
{{Airlines of New Zealand Defunct airlines of New Zealand Airlines established in 1996 Airlines disestablished in 2006 2006 disestablishments in New Zealand New Zealand companies established in 1996