CE media presentation

Airport and Airline Expo March 2008, New Delhi
John Nicholson, Aviation New Zealand.

It is great to be in India. Some of us have been here many times. For others, including me, this is the first visit to your country. We are keen to get to know India and your businesses better.

In the lead up to this visit, we watched the recent India cricket tour to Australia with a great deal of interest. India and New Zealand, we both like to beat Australia. The support in New Zealand for Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and Harbhajan Singh was considerable. The admiration for Sachin Tendulkar, intense. I suggest your performances against Australia helped motivate the Black Caps against England.

There is a close relationship between our countries. It goes back to when the first Indians arrived in New Zealand over 120 years ago. A census in 1896 showed there were 46 Indians in New Zealand, only one of whom was female. The ratio had improved slightly by 1920 when there were nearly 1850 men and 142 women.

Today, there are over 65,000 people of Indian origin in New Zealand. In Wellington, where I live, two suburbs, Khandallah and Broadmeadows have Indian street names.People of Indian origin are prominent in a number of sectors of society including business, medicine, education, sport and the arts. As you undoubtedly know, Anand Satyanand is our Governor General.

But we are here today to talk about aviation. Already there are a number of connections between us:

• 15 of the flight training schools in New Zealand currently have around 100 trainees from India – this is a huge increase on the 5 and 10 students that were in New Zealand a few years ago
• Air New Zealand Engineering Services has been servicing aircraft engines for several private airlines in India for a number of years
• Airways helped the Airport Authority of India install a Future Navigation System at Kolkata Airport

These companies are part of a New Zealand aviation industry which earns around US$640 million in exports each year The industry is committed to see that figure rise to US$1.6b by 2020.

There are a lot of internationally competitive companies in New Zealand.

Some examples

In the General Aviation area
- Pacific Aerospace makes the 750 short take off and landing aircraft which is ideal for passenger and parachute jumping use, a trainer aircraft which has been enhanced by Raytheon, and the Cresco which is ideally suited for agricultural use
- just last month, Falcomposite launched the all composite kit set aircraft. This is an ideal marriage of New Zealand’s competence in the marine area and the growing use of composites in the aviation industry

In the MRO area

• scheduled maintenance, inspections, repairs, modifications and overhauls are performed on a wide range of aircraft manufactured by global companies
• quality engine repair and overhaul work is carried out on a wide range of engines including high performance engines manufactured by Pratt and Whitney, TCM Continental and Textron Lycoming
• Safeair operates the largest propeller repair facility in the Southern Hemisphere and is an authorised repairer for several companies including Dowty, Hamilton Sundstrand and Hartzell

Aviation interior fit-outs are a very new area of real international potential for New Zealand While I referred to the marriage of the marine and aviation sectors with the composite Furio plane, there is much more evidence of that marriage in the fit-out area

Super yacht owners can get the same look and feel in their private jets New Zealand companies working in this area are coming up with some very innovative products and designs, with a real focus on quality and safety.

Lets not forget training either Training services in new Zealand cover the spectrum – from pilot and crew training to maintenance engineer education This includes English language training and also some of the services you’ll hear about from Airways in a few minutes.

As we know, aviation internationally is a highly regulated industry

• the Civil Aviation Authority in New Zealand is viewed, by its peers, as an outstanding regulator
• our companies conform to ISO and New Zealand standards
• a number of our companies have approvals from international bodies such as the FAA (United States), EASA (Europe), CAAC (China), JCAB (Japan) CASA (Australia)
• high-grade aluminium produced in New Zealand is used on the A380
• nine of the top 10 United States aerospace and defence companies use 3D product graphic management systems designed by New Zealand software company Right Hemisphere
• you may have heard of the bio-fuel work being done by Air New Zealand and Boeing
• several component companies are currently going through a process to become accredited suppliers to EADS – several have already done this with Boeing

So, there is a very competent industry in New Zealand. It is very internationally competitive As another example, there are around 200 foreign pilots training in New Zealand. They come from Australia, Indonesia, Oman, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the US, Canada and Russia…..and lets not forget that there are already about 100 from India

Research last year in the UK, the United States, China, Japan and Australia provided overwhelming evidence that New Zealand is a good country to do business with According to business people in these countries, new Zealanders have:

• an openness and directness which while unusual in international business, makes dealing with New Zealanders straightforward
• a refreshing honesty which engenders rapid trust
• resourcefulness, creativity and flexibility
• respect for other cultures, the land and environment
• the success of the family and importance of family life

So, New Zealand has world class aviation technology There is a highly trained workforce Our companies are not constrained by `old’ or `very traditional’ ways of doing things They are innovative, have new ideas and new ways of doing things We are god to do business with.

I’m now pleased to introduce you to some real live examples of the innovative but internationally competitive technologies and services available from New Zealand.

<< Back