Air NZ slams price hike

Indeed, Mike Stk, Air NZ certainly have held a legacy there with stamping on competition. Kiwi International was the first, I flew with them Dunedin-Sydney for about $300 return, six months before they sadly went under. The hostess had been telling me to watch this space because within months they were looking at ‘spreading their wings' with a service to UK. In ensuing years, more was to follow. Technically speaking, it seems Pacific Blue gave up, and Ansett let go well, went under, even though for a while, when they began operating in NZ skies almost 25 years ago, they had a hold on Air NZ, but the tide seemed to turn.

It has no peer. Because back in the early half of the 1960s, there was a small airline called Spanz, (South pacific Airlines of New Zealand) devised by a couple of visionary ex WW2 fighter pilots. They were quickly seen as direct competitors to NAC as they offered a new standard of service, but really it was supposed to compliment the other as a tourist airline. They only lasted 5 years.

I remember on a flight Christchurch to Wellington in 1993, at the height of competition with Ansett, I got a full salad meal on this flight, had to gobble it fast because it was a 737 rather than prop. A few years later, just after Ansett had gone, and all I got was a cup of coffee and red boiled lolly.
A shame we don't seem to have a stronghold of budget or other airlines, like in UK/Europe, or Asia.

I do not use Air NZ internationally anymore, but still will for domestic, at this stage.

Pukeko: that's what competition will get you - Air NZ's been pretty good at squeezing competition out of the local market - it's that sort of thing that we need, or if we can't get it we need some attention by the monopolies commission

I've reached the point where I don't watch the safety videos, there's only so much insipid rugby advertising one can take.

I travel overseas a lot (too much) as part of my business. That means travelling through Auckland a lot, I use the morning direct 737 flights. If they cancel those and force us to chug up to Christchurch and wait for another plane that's another 2-3 hours lost from my day.

I'll certainly be booking my flights on someone who will get me there and keep me working for those hours (ie Jetstar) - and once you open that can of worms I'm obviously going to be looking at other ways to leave the country - Christchurch->Singapore (not on Air NZ) becomes an interesting hopping off point, or Jetstar to Taipei or Guangzhou may be cheaper and no slower than Air NZ through CHC/AKL/HNG which would be my alternative.

I don't care about $4 extra on a flight, those 3 hours of work time are far more valuable to me than that, even if I have to do them in an airport lounge - this sort of brinkmanship does you a disservice, threatening to remove service just annoys your customers, they will find better ways to go about their lives that may not include you.

Want more customers? Figure out a way to get someone from Dunedin to Sydney in time for a morning meeting, or even for lunch. It should be possible, in practice it means I have to spend a night somewhere along the way, Sydney should take twice as long as Auckland, 3 hours, not 7 hours. [abridged]

Fairly easily figured, another way of grubbing more money for the stadium. That airport has council ownership, and was plastered with stadium promo over its terminal windows before the thing was built. I felt at the time that they might do this. Recently dropping off a friend there, it was $4 for 30 min. Extortion. Another avenue of stadium revenue, and supposedly not cribbing the ratepayer. But when he or she wants to fly...

But why Air NZ care, because they too are profiteering, and are as they say “Crazy about rugby” spending lots in sponsorship for that, so both are as bad as each other. My last flight with them, you’d think it was Rugby Airways, with everything, even the safety demo, had to bring rugby into it, just because it was the RWC period, last Sept. Their fares are not always cheap. Wanted to fly to Christchurch to connect with my international flight, the only fare, one way, was $212! Anyway, it’s all fine, in just over a week I will be flying, from Christchurch, having bussed there, then away with Air Asia, and the ticket to KL, 11 hour, 9000km flight, cost just over double the $212 for the 320km 45 min flight to CHC.

Doesn't Air NZ know we have bills to pay, like the stadium, among others? They can choose to absorb the costs. If less people travel, as they claim, because of the increased cost of fares, they then have to offer inducement discounts to get them back on their airline. Win,win for us, I think.