CHINA is racing to develop drone and air taxi technology after the “low-altitude economy” was named a strategic priority by Beijing in its national economic agenda.
Shanghai aviation technology firm Autoflight recently conducted a successful test flight of a two-ton electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) at Shanghai Pudong International Airport and is one of several companies vying to launch in Beijing.
Dr Abdulghani Mohamed is an Advanced Air Mobility researcher with RMIT in Melbourne and is internationally recognised for his research into turbulence mitigation technologies and urban flow field characterisation relevant to flight.
“The low-altitude economy, also called Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), is gaining considerable international attention and China is not the only country focused on this developing technology,” he said.
He outlined challenges facing industry and academics worldwide such as safe routes, avoiding wildlife, noise reduction and operation in windy and turbulent conditions.
“The latter is particularly important for site selection of a vertiport, which is essential to China – and the rest of the world – setting up its low-altitude economy,” he said.
“The routine transportation of people in autonomous airborne vehicles is expected to take several more years to become commonplace.
“This delay is largely due to the necessity of adapting aviation regulations to accommodate this innovative technology.”
RETURN TO CHRISTCHURCH
China Southern Airlines is boosting its seasonal service to Christchurch from Guangzhou from October.
The airline will fly to Christchurch five times a week for five months from the end of October, which is a 52% increase in capacity on the past summer.
Christchurch Airport General Manager of Aeronautical Development Gordon Bevan says the airline and airport have committed to working more closely after a MoU was signed between them.
“One of the aims of this work is to meet increasing interest from China’s travellers to ski here and we hope China Southern will be flying here year-round before much longer.”
SAA BACK AT PERTH
In late April, a South African Airways (SAA) A340-300 from Johannesburg touched down at Perth Airport to mark the airline’s return to Australia.
WA Deputy Premier and Minister for Tourism Rita Saffioti said the inaugural non-stop service was “a significant milestone in our state’s aviation recovery”.
“The resumption of this flight is welcome news for South African expats and their visiting friends and relatives, as well as for those travelling to WA for major events such as the Springbok fans, who now have a direct connection ahead of the Rugby Championship match in August (in Perth).”
Perth Airport CEO Jason Waters said it was “great to see South African Airways back after a four-year break”.
“The service will initially operate three times per week, delivering 78,936 seats to the Perth market …”
South African Airway CEO, Professor John Lamola said the return of the direct Johannesburg-Perth service marked “a significant milestone in our recovery journey since we returned to the skies about three years ago”.
“Perth is our second intercontinental route to be relaunched after Sao Paulo; it signals the strategic importance to our growth and expansion plans,” he said.
RENEWED FOCUS ON AUSTRALIA
An Auckland Airport tourism forum was told of renewed efforts to boost Australian visitor numbers as the post-pandemic recovery continues.
At the forum held in early May, participants were told that that international inbound visitors were at 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.
There were 3.1 million overseas visitors to New Zealand in the 12 months to February compared to 3.9 million during the same period in 2019.
United States, United Kingdom and India visitor numbers are all above pre-Covid levels but Australian numbers sit at 83% recovery; the gap in the Australian inbound recovery is New Zealand’s largest visitor volume shortfall (-265,000 visitors) compared to pre-Covid numbers.
Auckland Airport Chief Executive Carrie Hurihanganui told the forum that “while numbers are tracking well and in-line, or even surpassing, other in-bound tourism markets, Australian tourists have an outsized impact on New Zealand’s traveller recovery because they make up such a large portion of the market”.
The forum heard there were 1.27 million Australian visitors in the 12 months to February 2024 compared to 1.54 million in 2019. Only at Queenstown did visitor numbers surpass pre-pandemic numbers; 117% recovery on 2019 with 235,000 Australian visitors arriving as at February 2024.
Outside Queenstown, visiting friends and family recovery is at 86% on 2019 with leisure/holiday demand at 70%.
Ms Hurihanganui said that Australia remains New Zealand’s top visitor market by volume.
“One of the ways for New Zealand to attract more Australian tourists is increasing seat capacity between our two countries, leading to greater choice for travellers which also puts downward pressure on airfares,” she said.
“We know that airlines look for traveller demand before deploying capacity.”
Tasman Aircraft 