Pacific Blue Boeing 737-800

“Oh, happy flying!”

If you are a part of the New Zealand aviation community, then you know exactly what airline I’m talking about just from those three words alone.

Of course, the airline is Pacific Blue Airlines! Pacific Blue was the New Zealand subsidiary of Virgin Blue Airlines of Australia (Now Virgin Australia) and was established back in 2003, with operations commencing in January of 2004. The first flights commenced on 29 January 2004 between Christchurch and Brisbane. They used the same IATA code as Virgin Blue (DJ) but a different ICAO code (PBN), but switched fully when Virgin Blue became Virgin Australia (using VA/VOZ). Initially, they used the ICAO code PBI, but this changed to PBN on 1 August 2007 so as to not confuse air traffic control between a capital ‘i’ and a ‘1’ in flight plans.

For the first few years of operations, Pacific Blue flew exclusively international services , mostly trans-Tasman (maybe entirely, I’m not sure if they were doing Pacific operations by this point), but on 21 August 2007, they announced their intention to fly domestically within New Zealand. The initial routes would be between Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch with Christchurch to Dunedin flights commencing later on. Pacific Blue also flew services for Polynesia Blue (then rebranded to Virgin Samoa).

However, on 16 August 2010, just under 3 years since they first announced it, Pacific Blue would be exiting the domestic New Zealand market with the fleet being reallocated to the trans-Tasman and medium-haul routes. The last domestic Pacific Blue domestic flight took place on 17 October 2010 from Wellington to Auckland.

The Pacific Blue name would be dropped in December of 2011, being renamed to Virgin Australia Airlines (NZ) ltd. In addition to this, the last Aotearoa-registered Virgin Australia 737, ZK-PBL, would be reregistered to an Australian registration, this being VH-VUQ, in March of 2015, flying VA0161 on 13 March 2015 from Auckland to Brisbane, ending 11 years of New Zealand AOC (Air Operator Certificate) from 23 January 2004 to 14 March 2015. The airline flew under the Virgin Australia AOC. The aircraft were all relocated to Virgin Australia’s domestic and international operations.

Virgin Australia NZ continued to exist even despite the lack of aircraft operated under the subsidiary. This was because of the cabin crew and pilots who were based around Aotearoa (there may have been other reasons too, but I’m not sure). But, then 2020 rolled around. And then COVID-19 hit. Due to the worldwide pandemic causing the travel industry to grind to a sudden halt, Virgin Australia closed its New Zealand Bases, leaving over 600 crew redundant. This was a big point of criticism, mostly among the unions that were affected such as NZALPA and E Tu.

Virgin Australia has got not too many plans to return to serving New Zealand destinations outside of Queenstown since the COVID-19 crisis has hit them severely., which is a shame. Dunedin lost its international service to Australia thanks to this, which was also its only international service.

Virgin Australia will be back one day. But for now we will miss the iconic tails of Pacific Blue and of Virgin Australia that once were not uncommon around major airports within New Zealand

ZK-PBG: 2004 Boeing 737-8FE | Pacific Blue Airlines | Currently: Active with Virgin Australia as VH-VUD

Kiwi classic of the day: The ‘Oh Happy Flying” TV ad by Pacific Blue (a parody of Los del Rio's song Macarena)