Kiwijet Embraer ERJ145

So here's something different, an airline that never operated. And they were known as Kiwijet.

Kiwijet was a failed startup airline founded in May of 2007. They wanted to become "New Zealand's first all-jet regional airline" by operating Avro RJ-100s. Initially, they had wanted to operate at least 2 Boeing 737 aircraft between Auckland and Christchurch, Dunedin, and Invercargill. They had plans to begin operations in November of the following year, however this was pushed back due to their bid to buy Qantas' New Zealand subsidiary Jetconnect. However by June 2007, the bid had fallen through, as was confirmed by a press statement the same month. Kiwijet resorted to 'Plan B', the Embraer ERJ145.

'Plan B' included operating to 9 cities instead of the initial 4, and in July of the same year, they confirmed that Christchurch would be the main hub of the airline. By August, the airline said that they were ready to begin to hire chief operating staff, and would begin operations with 7 ERJ-145 aircraft. However, when September rolled around, there was another press release. They could not obtain their desired ERJ-145 planes, which just meant that they actually couldn't find any of the variant that they wanted. 'Plan C' would kick in (although this was not a name given by Kiwijet, just easier to explain it this way). The Avro RJ-100 was the third plane of choice.

'Plan C' would mean flying 4 Avro RJ-100s to 7 destinations up and down the country. In December, they announced plans to open an office by February of 2008 and start to fly by the end of that year. But when February rolled around, they announced that they would not commence operations until exactly one year later, in February 2009. They claimed that they were 'trying to negotiate with another airline to provide "feeder traffic"'. During the year, they announced that the launch of the airline was delayed a month. Finally, they announced that they would delay the launch indefinitely, due to multiple factors. These factors included mainly the rise in jet fuel prices, and that the original backers had pulled out due to the financial crisis of that year.

But in October of 2008, directors had brought back the airline from the dead thanks to some backing. Albeit, as a small two-plane cargo airline operating BAe 146s, but with plans to begin operations in early 2009, before commencing passenger operations later in the year, due to jet fuel prices lowering down substantially. The freight routes were planned to be used to do 'route surveys' (maybe to see if the route would sustain passengers? But what data would they've gained out of it? It's not like the boxes are gonna give feedback or whatever.).

The demise of the relaunched Kiwijet would be met in the very start of 2009, where the global economic meltdown essentially killed the starting up of the airline. Since then, the directors of the airline moved back to the United States, and there appears to be not future for the airline.

What's even stranger is Kiwijet's Facebook page. It was active throughout 2018, with the first post being posted in late-July of 2018, the very beginning of 2019, and the very end of 2019, and nothing else since then or even before 2018.

What is also interesting is that, in June of 2007, they had around 2 Avro RJ-100s that were actually sort of ready to begin service with them. What I mean is that there were 2 Avro-RJs that had full cabins, and there's even a photo one of them that had the green nose that it would've had. Alas, it never made it to New Zealand from Bristol, in England, where it was located at the time.

There is no registration info for the aircraft I have depicted, for there is only photoshopped images, but here is the link to the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/kiwijet/

Next on the agenda, Pacific Blue Airlines!
Kiwi classic of the day: Politician | Artist: Kora