Starting out

Origin Pacific Airways was established by Robert Inglis and Nicki Smith in 1996 and started operations in April 1997.^[1] Inglis and Smith had previously established Air Nelson which they subsequently sold to Air New Zealand. Mike Pero and a group of Wellington investors each also owned 25% shares in the company.

Code-share with Qantas Jetconnect

Origin operated code-share flights on behalf of Jetconnect (a subsidiary of Qantas) from mid 2001 to early 2004. When the code-share agreement was cancelled the airline lost around 60% of its business. Routes served on behalf of Jetconnect included Rotorua and Queenstown. Origin operated ATR-72-212 and Dash 8 100 and 300 aircraft on those routes. Jetconnect took over these routes using their own Boeing 737 aircraft.

The loss of the code-share with Jetconnect was a major blow to the airline. They lost access to Qantas's international network and had to compete against the government backed Air New Zealand and with a competing Jetconnect. The code-share loss thus resulted in the scaling back of jobs and aircraft.

Collapse

The airline ceased passenger operations on 10 August 2006 when the airline could not service its debts to airports and to Inland Revenue. At the time the airline ceased passenger operations, Origin's passenger numbers were up more than usual.^[2][3] Freight operations finished on 15 September 2006.