MEDIA RELEASE
February 13, 2008 Christchurch, New Zealand: The Kiwijet Airline Company Limited has completed a comprehensive, and
highly detailed due diligence report along with regional market, and currency analysis for the 2008/2009 fiscal years.
The analysis revealed and validated Kiwijet’s business plan to operate four British Aerospace RJ-100’s (ARJ) to seven
regional centres as well as an additional eight cities after one year of positive operations with an additional four
aircraft for a total of eight passenger aircraft.
This report was delayed by a fortnight due to rapidly changing worldwide currency markets and the US economic slowdown.
The report goes on to state that although the outlook is good for expanded domestic services within New Zealand it also
indicated that Kiwijet would need a partner airline to provide feeder traffic to and from the domestic trunk, and
transtasman sectors in order to have the best chance of success.
As a result of the report Kiwijet is in negotiations with a scheduled Australian carrier to provide such a plan. Due to
mutual confidentiality agreements with that carrier we are not in a position to disclose any further details of the
scope or scale of the Australian carrier except that it is a fully scheduled international carrier currently utilizing
narrowbody single aisle jet aircraft in domestic and international operations.
Kiwijet’s Chief Executive Mr. Patrick Weil made an unannounced visit to Christchurch on January 28th and 29th to meet
with Kiwijet’s prospective team members and to look over a potential head office site at the Christchurch International
Airport directly atop the airport’s car park. Mr. Weil had been in Australia, and had an opportunity to visit the staff
during the long Australia Day weekend. He then continued on to Brisbane and Melbourne.
Mr. Weil has returned to the United States to secure the financing of $ 35,000,000 USD for Kiwijet to launch operations.
We have pushed back our launch date to February 2009 or just after the school holidays. This move was requested by the
Australian carrier, and allows Kiwijet to have a bit more time to have all aspects of the operation in place to launch
operations with four aircraft and a fully trained staff of 260 team members.
On January 22nd Mr. Weil addressed the 5th Annual Asia Pacific Low Cost Airlines Congress in Singapore with great
enthusiasm to present Kiwijet’s business plan and case study. In his opening remarks the entire Kiwijet plan was
revealed to an audience of more than 500 with special celebrity introductions from such legends as Robby Krieger from
“The Doors” and Paul Michael Glaser from “Starsky & Hutch” fame proclaiming that “Soon all Kiwi’s will fly”. Mr. Weil was also on a panel discussion regarding aircraft
leasing alongside Mr. Alan Joyce CEO of Jetstar. Mr. Tony Davis CEO of Tiger Airways, and Mr. Stefan Pichler Chief
Commercial Director of Virgin/Pacific Blue, and Warwick Brady CEO of Mandala Airlines.
The overall future of Kiwijet looks good, and we are not concerned with the announcement of the national carrier’s
intention to place Embraer regional jets into the domestic market. We estimated that these aircraft will not be
delivered until late 2012 if ordered now due to a backlog of over 100 aircraft.
Here are the facts regarding these aircraft; As for Embraer E-190 this is an excellent aircraft, however it can only
operate into eight or possibly nine airports in New Zealand. We believe that these aircraft will be used to replace
aging Boeing 737-300 aircraft currently in use on domestic services. As for the Bombardier Q400-X this aircraft has not
even got off the drawing board as of this writing, and the earliest dates that these aircraft could be delivered would
be around 2015. Furthermore the British Aerospace RJ-100 can operate into 20 of the 26 commercial airports in New
Zealand. With operating costs exactly the same as a twin engine Fokker 100 jet. It is foolish to dismiss the 90 seater
RJ-100 as not being a threat, it is.
The national carrier can make big claims regarding serving markets such as Auckland to Invercargill with E-Jets or
Boeings but we must remind everyone it was Kiwijet that set the table on May 04, 2007. When so called aviation analysts
claimed that the route was never going to work. Where were those geniuses and share traders when the national airline
made the announcement of such routes on 03 December 2007?
Additionally Kiwijet will have an advertising budget of three million US Dollars when service begins. However we will
not tolerate any media company’s news stories that refer our operations as “Crap” as was the case when (The Press)
Fairfax Media on 04-01-08 referred to a non opinion story regarding several flight delays by Pacific Blue. Where is the
outrage when the national airline drops the ball? The silence is deafening.
If a newspaper reports such a problem that’s fair game, however when it injects opinion into a story we will pull our
advertising without notice and file charges for liable in such a case. We believe that such reporting is disgraceful and
should be retracted, and hints to collusion with the national carrier.
The entry of Pacific Blue on the trunk routes just validates our original concept, and we are extremely happy that as a
result New Zealanders are getting a fair deal on the trunk but much more needs to be done for the regions and with a
level playing field we believe that “Soon all Kiwi’s will fly”.
We will have another media release on March 01, 2008 regarding our progress.
ENDS
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