Auckland Airport welcomes the announcement that Sichuan Airlines will start flying between Auckland and Chengdu in China from June this year.
The service will operate three times a week on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday using an A330-200 aircraft with direct flights taking 13 hours.
Acting Aeronautical Commercial General Manager Scott Tasker, says Sichuan Airlines is expected to add 81,000 seats a year to and from China and deliver an estimated $102 million annual boast to the New Zealand economy.
“Sichuan Airlines will provide the first direct flight from Chengdu to New Zealand and will cater for the growing numbers of Chinese visiting our country. On average each Chinese visitor spends approximately $4,300* while here and they are increasingly travelling more widely around the country.”
“For New Zealand travellers, Sichuan Airlines offers the opportunity to fly direct to Chengdu, the thriving capital of the Sichuan Province which is home to the World renowned Giant Panda Research Base, home of the panda.”
Mr Tasker says Sichuan Airlines decision to fly to Auckland comes at a time when Auckland Airport is investing more than $1 million every working day on its core aeronautical infrastructure.
“The major upgrade of our international departure area is well underway, as is the expansion of Pier B of the international terminal which will add two more gates that can each accommodate an A380 or two smaller aircraft.
We are also progressing the design of the new domestic section of our combined domestic and international terminal, and undertaking further improvements to our roads and public transport infrastructure. This level of infrastructure investment will likely continue into the near future,” says Mr Tasker.*Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment International Visitor Survey 2016
| An Auckland Airport release | February 22, 2017 ||
Trade barriers cost New Zealand billions of dollars annually, according to an NZIER report for the Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand (DCANZ).
The report, titled Dairy trade’s economic contribution to New Zealand, highlights the strong contribution the dairy sector has continued to make to New Zealand’s national and regional economic development, even while it has been at the bottom of a price cycle, and despite global dairy markets remaining highly distorted.
“Trade barriers are a significant cost to New Zealand. Tariffs alone are suppressing the value of our dairy products by around 1.3 billion dollars annually,” says DCANZ Chairman Malcolm Bailey.
“On top of this, non-tariff measures add over $3 billion in costs to New Zealand dairy exports in the APEC region alone,” he adds.
The report found dairy exports generate more than one in every four dollars earnt by New Zealand and the sector provides incomes for 40,000 New Zealanders, including 2,100 jobs in Auckland.
“These are good jobs with the highest average salary levels for a food manufacturing sector, and the second highest for a farming sector,” says Mr Bailey.
“Federated Farmers and DairyNZ have a workplace action plan underway to make sure the working environment for jobs in our sector is a good one that goes beyond compliance levels.”
At a district level in New Zealand, the dairy sector is responsible for:
“Over the past 15 years, the dairy employment has grown by an average of 3.7% per year, over twice as fast as the 1.7% recorded for total employment” says Mr Bailey.
The report outlines how the economic contribution goes beyond the farm gate. It found dairy processors are spending $5.4 billion on non-milk inputs like equipment hire, management services and packaging each year.
Additionally, dairy farmers are spending $12.2 billion dollars on goods and services within their communities. This flow through economic effect means the dairy sector accounts for more than ten per cent of regional GDP in the Waikato, the West Coast and in Southland.
Mr Bailey emphasises that it is not all an economic story for dairying.
“The dairy industry has been working hard to also invest in and deliver on sustainability. There is a commitment to stock exclusion from streams, to riparian planting, better effluent management and better nutrient budgeting. The sector is proud that these efforts are beginning to translate into noticeable improvements.”
“Over the past four years dairy processors have also invested more than $2 billion in processing capital to improve processing efficiency and diversity New Zealand’s dairy production mix.”
“These investments will support the sector to continuing delivering high-quality, safe dairy products with increasing value for consumers”.
“Removing trade barriers will allow New Zealand’s dairy sector, ultimately, to maintain and build both sustainability and value-adding momentum,” says Bailey.
To read NZIER’s Dairy trade’s economic contribution to New Zealand report, visit www.dcanz.com/news/
| An NZDA release | February 21, 2017 ||
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242