Air New Zealand has failed in its attempt to overturn an Employment Court ruling in favour of two engineers dismissed for misuse of the internet.

The Court of Appeal has dismissed an application by the airline for leave to appeal and ordered it to pay Brian Cliff and Allan Groom each $2000 costs.

The dismissals of both men were found to be justified by the Employment Relations Authority but the Employment Court last year found against Air New Zealand and ordered it to reinstate Mr Cliff and pay him for lost earnings and $10,000 of damages for stress and humiliation....

A spilt cup of coffee may have caused last Thursday's emergency landing at Ohakea Air Base which disrupted the travel plans of 122 passengers.

Two investigations are probing the cause of the electrical fault that grounded the 737 but Air New Zealand has revealed that coffee was spilt over a control panel earlier in the day.

Air New Zealand has said a "minor electrical fault" was the "likely cause" of the late night drama when fumes filled the cockpit of the aircraft and forced an emergency landing....

The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union has served notice of strike action on Air New Zealand�s biggest Link company, Air Nelson.

The action will begin at midnight on the 24th of May and comes after nine days of talks, including four days with a mediator.

EPMU National Aviation Industry Organiser Strachan Crang says workers at Air Nelson are determined to get a fair go.

�Our members agreed to a below average deal last time so the company could grow and now they expect that loyalty to be rewarded,� Mr Crang said.

�Air Nelson has picked up a heap of extra business with the collapse of Origin Pacific, and our members are doing that extra work for the same pay. Any pay rise needs to reflect the lift in productivity.�

�Air Nelson is fully owned by Air New Zealand and the parent company seems to have no hesitation in using its market position to keep wage levels down.�

�This kind of erosion of pay and skills is going to seriously hurt our aviation industry in the near future, and that�s a serious issue given how important this industry is to New Zealand�s economic growth.

The company is offering a three year deal of 3.6%, 3% and 3.6% and the removal of long service leave. The union is claiming 5.8% and 4.8% over two years and the retention of long service leave.

The strike action will include rolling stoppages, a food freight handling ban and a blanket overtime ban for all union members and will be targeting Air Nelson operations between most of New Zealand�s provincial cities and main centres.

Passengers stranded for several hours at Ohakea last Thursday night could have flown out of Palmerston North Airport before midnight.

It remains unclear why Air New Zealand left 107 passengers sitting at RNZAF Base Ohakea until 2.30am Friday rather than bring them to Palmerston North.

The Air New Zealand Boeing 737-300 carrying 122 people made an emergency landing at RNZAF base Ohakea after a pilot smelt smoke in the cockpit....

Does it really matter whether four National MPs stranded at Ohakea airbase take a taxi to Wellington? On the face of it, probably not. They were stranded at Ohakea after their Air New Zealand flight made an emergency landing and when it became clear that Ohakea would remain home for some time, they flashed a taxi chit to get a fast-track trip back to the Capital, writes the Manawatu Standard in an editorial.

It's probably something that senior executives of a number of big companies would do in a flash to make sure their stranded downtime didn't carry on too long. Whether MPs have quite the same vital role is debatable, but it was a decisive action so they probably should get credit for that, given the indecisiveness that tends to rule. But the reason that the long taxi jaunt raises such interest is because most people suspect it was a glimpse of the sort of thing that happens a lot of the time in many different areas....

Proposed domestic airline Kiwijet has little chance of getting off the ground against the might of Air New Zealand, an analyst says....

Air Nelson says its staff who are planning to go on strike in two weeks' time don't even know what they want.

The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) yesterday served the airline with a 14-day notice of strike action....

Rotorua Airport's runway looks almost certain to be extended by more than 630m, providing direct competition to Hamilton and Auckland for the lucrative Australian tourist market.

Resource consent approval for the $19 million upgrade was announced at the Rotorua District Council yesterday, although appeals could be lodged by any of the 423 submitters over the next few weeks....

A $7 million attempt by the Government to market New Zealand to Chinese tourists has drawn a mixed reaction from the industry.

Tourism Minister Damien O'Connor yesterday announced the new funding for Tourism New Zealand to be spent over two years.

A spokeswoman for Air New Zealand - which does its own marketing in Shanghai - said that although the airline was pleased with the funding, it did not seem enough to make much difference.

"Based on the airline's experience over the past year in marketing its new Auckland-Shanghai service, the allocation to Tourism New Zealand falls substantially short of the investment required to successfully promote New Zealand in what is a very challenging market," said Air NZ's Tracey Palmer....

Air New Zealand says the tourism sector lacks ambition and the Government has failed to understand how valuable the industry is for the economy.

Norm Thompson, group general manager for short-haul airlines, called for greater investment and a more ambitious strategy.

Thompson said at yesterday's inaugural Hotel Industry Conference in Auckland that the tourism industry had to work better together.

"I've certainly been involved in putting that [Tourism Strategy 2015] together but ... have we got some work to do in order to be able to bring the industry together, working for the common good," Thompson said....

After breakfast this morning I'm going to start my own budget airline.

It's the latest craze.

Every week there's another announcement from someone or other that they're about to start their own budget or regional airline.

This week we've seen reports that Nelson tribe Ngati Koata and the founder of failed regional airline Origin Pacific, Robert Inglis, are working together to launch another regional airline.

That followed reports last week that Florida-based aviation investor Patrick Weil had $27 million backing to start up a low-cost carrier here in New Zealand. Weil plans to buy Qantas' New Zealand operations for his airline, but told reporters he hadn't actually spoken to the Aussie carrier about his plans.

So really, he's not much further ahead of where I'll be when I get my airline under way after my Weet-Bix. And in one respect I'm in front - unlike Weil I'm not an undischarged bankrupt.

The chances of a budget airline succeeding in New Zealand are pretty much nil. Look at the difficulties various domestic competitors to Air New Zealand have had as one half of a duopoly.

While there might be some space for a regional carrier on some routes, the idea that a genuine third competitor could make a profit - particularly now that Air New Zealand is operating as a low-cost domestic carrier - is ridiculous.

But so too is Air New Zealand's suggestion that it might start its own budget domestic airline. The idea was floated in a passing reference in an internal company memo which mysteriously made its way to the media soon after Weil announced his plans.

Why would Air New Zealand start a budget airline? What would it gain? It is already essentially a low-cost carrier.

So no one's going to start a third airline in New Zealand, whatever they might tell eager journalists.

After lunch, I'm going to start a phone company, and provide super high-speed broadband.

Qantas will suspend its three times a week direct services between Adelaide and Auckland from July 23 this year.

The decision is in response to sluggish market demand, Qantas' South Australian regional general manager Terry Simpson said.

Qantas launched the Auckland-Adelaide service in December 2004 but it had not delivered the results to make it viable for the airline, Mr Simpson said.

AIR Nelson and Eastland Infrastructure are blaming each other, after the airline�s decision not to introduce a Bombardier Dash Q300 aircraft service to the region because of a proposed increase in landing fees.

The proposed landing fees increase � described by Air Nelson chief executive John Hambleton as "totally unacceptable" � has been publicly notified by Gisborne District Council.

The increase for the 50-seater Q300 (which is replacing the 33-seat Saab) was 33 percent more than the average the airline was paying elsewhere. Instead, Air Nelson would deploy its new aircraft to other routes, he said....

Wellington is suffering from a lack of capacity on trans-Tasman flights, says the city's airport.

International passenger numbers rose 3.1 per cent in April on a year ago, but capacity cuts announced by Air New Zealand in November are now beginning to hit, it says.

Overall, last month had 6.2 per cent fewer international seats, increasing load factors to 83 per cent from 75 per cent a year ago....