Air fares as low as $1365 return to Europe are on sale as airlines try to top up planes for the coming year.
Harvey World Travel was this week selling fares on China Southern Airlines to Amsterdam for $1365 and Air New Zealand to Los Angeles or San Francisco for $1299.
Harvey is part of Stella Travel, whose general manager of marketing David Libeau said demand was strong.
"The demand has been very high which is surprising in a way. When the weather's bad people book but the weather's been good and they're still booking."
China Southern, which was trying to attract more New Zealand passengers with revamped food and wine, was also appealing on price, he said.
"I haven't seen prices that low."
Flight Centre will stage its annual travel expo in Auckland today and tomorrow and was expecting around 20,000 visitors lured by fares to Amsterdam for around $1400.
"If you sit the pricing at a low level everyone else follows suit and that's why you have Emirates at below the $2000 mark," said general manager for product at Flight Centre NZ Simon Mckearney.
Emirates is offering fares at under $2000 to Oslo, Budapest, Brussels and Barcelona as part of its "early bird" sale.
Mckearney said there was strong airline capacity throughout the Pacific, and Hawaiian Airlines was offering deals to Honolulu for $900 and there were "very good deals" on Air New Zealand to the United States.
"The revenue management teams in airlines want to mop up that capacity and close off aircraft as soon as possible so that's why they'll drop a good price," he said.
About 40 per cent of travel booking would be done by Flight Centre during the next three months.
Mckearney said he expected price competition to Hawaii to be intense between Hawaiian and Air NZ as both had substantial capacity and there could be a showdown.
Stella's Libeau did not necessarily expect airlines to pass on the benefits of savings on jet fuel, almost half of what it was a year ago.
"Long term airlines would not necessarily pass on significant savings on fuel but offer sharper tactical fares on certain routes with a lot more competitive pricing. I get their position, airlines have to a degree been struggling but if they can make a bit more of a profit they can survive and invest in product."
He did expect the falling value of the kiwi against the US currency to deter some travellers but not for some time.
The kiwi has fallen from a high of around 88c against the greenback around the middle of last year to around 73c last night.
"I think it will bite but not yet," Libeau said.
- Grant Bradley of the New Zealand Herald
