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APAC- Aotearoa Pacific


APAC- Aotearoa Pacific

APAC - New Zealand's flag carrier.

Established in 1949 as an act of the New Zealand Parliament, Tasman Pacific Empire Airlines as it was then know, began flying a rag tag fleet of ex-military aircraft and pre-war transport.

Entering the jet age in 1957 with the delivery of Lockheed Prop-Jet Electra's for the cross-Tasman journeys to Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. 1963 arrived and TPEA was being rapidly left behind as the rest of the world's airlines as the pure jet age dawned. BOAC offered TPEA their excess Comet 4s and favourable delivery slots on the upcoming Vickers VC-10, whilst American manufacturers Boeing and Douglas offered their 707-120B and DC-8-50 respectively. TPEA favoured the American jets, owing to their relative commonality in the Asia-Pacific region. In contradiction to TPEA's desires, the New Zealand Government, then majority owner of TPEA, was leaning toward the Comet/VC-10 arrangement with BOAC. A comprimise was struck when British European Airways took on the Comet 4s and the New Zealand Government relented, allowing for Boeing 707s to be ordered, alongside a small fleet of Vickers VC-10s.
The VC-10s were delivered first, entering into service on the Auckland-Sydney-Darwin-Bangkok-Delhi-Rome-London route in December of 1964, taking over a number of early delivery slots from BOAC. Whilst the VC-10s were unofficially the flagship of the TPEA jetfleet, the true flagship, the Boeing 707, would enter service in January 1966 on the Auckland-Nadi-Honolulu-San Francisco route. Onward service to New York would commence in October of the same year. connecting up with an extended TPEA VC-10 service.
In 1970, the VC-10 experiment came to an end, with the final aircraft, ZK-VCE, being sold to the RAF and TPEA becomes a purely 707 airline. However their status as a purely 707 airline would not last, as the airline joined numerous others and ordered the Boeing 747-200 in May of 1971 for an expected delivery in April of 1973.

ZK-AKA, the first of the Boeing 747 fleet, arrives at the newly renamed Tasman Pacific Airlines on the 21st of April 1973 and enters service on the Auckland-Singapore-London-San Francisco-Auckland round the world service in June of the same year. By the end of the 1970s, the 747 fleet would number 12 frames ZK-AKA through AKL.
A turning point for TPA came in 1979, with the New Zealand Government agreeing to merge their two airlines, TPA and domestic carrier, National Airways of New Zealand (NANZ), under the more widely recognised TPA name. This immediately opened the airline upto domestic travel, and added the Boeing 727-200, 737-200 and Fokker F-27 to the growing fleet. Additional 737-200s were purchased and the 727s sold off.
By 1980, the Lockheed L1011-500 was ordered to free up 747s on shorter international routes and allowing for shift of focus onto longer range Asian services. In an unrelated development, New Zealand Prime Minister Robert Muldoon resigned, after a personal financial windfall of $10 Million NZD went unexplained.


The TPA fleet remained unchanged for most of the 1980s, with the Boeing 747-200 and Lockheed L1011-500 making up the international fleet, with the Boeing 737-200 and Fokker F-27 continuing to fly domestic routes within New Zealand.
Come 1989 and the new Labour government, under Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer, gave the go-ahead for TPA to make a multi-million dollar aircraft order to facilitate a comprehensive fleet upgrade. The Boeing 737-300, 747-400 and 767-300ER were selected to replace the Boeing 737-200, 747-200 and Lockheed L1011-500 respectively, whilst the Fokker 50 was ordered to succeed the Friendship.

Come 1996, New Zealand was in dire financial straights and the Government needed to raise capital and quickly. Shortly after the final Boeing aircraft arrived in Auckland, Tasman Pacific Airlines was sold to a private equity firm for an undisclosed cost. Now in private hands, the newly listed TPA (NZX: TPA) was able to break free from the shackles of Government control and truly become it's own. Under private ownership, the airline cut routes, including the stopping Auckland-Nadi-Honolulu-San Francisco-New York and Auckland-Singapore-Bangkok-Rome-London-New York-Los Angeles-Auckland routes. Many of these destinations, including Nadi, Honolulu and San Francisco were already served by direct flights, whilst London, Singapore and New York were already joined in the flagship Tasman Pacific Flight 1 service.

By happy coincidence, in the dying days of governmental ownership, the Airbus A320 was ordered and this presented a fantastic opportunity for the airline. New Zealand has often been seen as a frontrunner in Indigenous relations in the region, however the name Tasman Pacific was seen by some as a throwback to the colonial days of yore. By 1999, the A320s were nearly ready for delivery, and in a level of secrecy not seen since the 1980s rebranding of Trans Australia Airlines, A320-214 C/N 239 registration ZK-NLS was designated the first to be unveiled in the new public identity. On the night of July 26th 1999, just 1 day before the public acceptance ceremony for the A320, a nationwide effort was undertaken, removing all TPA signage from every New Zealand airport, replacing it with APAC - Aotearoa Pacific and on July 27 1999, APAC was officially launched.

Since 1999, APAC has been the pride of a newly reborn New Zealand, serving 52 destinations worldwide and by 2022, the Airbus A320 family had become the backbone of the fleet, replacing the 737-300 and even the 767-300ER on some short haul domestic services.

As of April 2022, APAC operated 18 Airbus A320s, 6 A320 NEOs, 7 A321NEOs, 7 Boeing 777-300ER and 14 Boeing 787-9s with orders for a further 7 A321NEOs and 8 Boeing 787-10 aircraft.
Regionally, APAC operate a fleet of French-Italian ATR42-600s and ATR72-600s.


Fin.