Lower prices will lead to more visitors, better deals for students, and ''more tin in the air'' as Air New Zealand slashes its domestic flight prices by up to 50%, Otago and Southland-based stakeholders say.
Air New Zealand has said it is shrinking its lowest fares on 41 domestic routes, and put out a new table of lowest domestic fares across the country yesterday, available now for travel from March 25.
Fares to and from Dunedin and Christchurch will start at only $39, while tickets to fly to and from Wellington will start at $49, and those to and from Auckland will begin at $79.
Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive Dougal McGowan said the move was ''great news'' for tourism in both Dunedin and Queenstown.
''What it can potentially do is increase the loadings of people who are coming, and make it more accessible for people to be able to come,'' he said.
People would be less likely to drive to Christchurch to catch international flights when they could fly, and there was the potential for more flights to be added to smaller routes, Mr McGowan said.
''It's more planes in the air, more tin in the air for us.''
Enterprise Dunedin director John Christie said it was good news for the city since about 70% of Dunedin's tourism was domestic.
Prices between Queenstown and the three major centres will be the same as the Dunedin fares, though starting fares between Invercargill and Wellington and Invercargill and Christchurch are slightly more expensive.
Air New Zealand airfares for Dunedin to Auckland in the week leading up to March 25 started at $99, but starting fares between Dunedin and Wellington on two days were already $49.
An Air NZ spokeswoman said those flights had been reduced, and a small number of new fares would be available before March 25.
Air New Zealand’s new entry-level one-way Seat fares are as follows:
Dunedin Airport chief executive Richard Roberts said the airfares were a ''great opportunity'' for the city and region and would be ''hugely beneficial to our valued students and business sector''.
In Invercargill, Venture Southland chief executive Paul Casson also described the airfare changes as ''all positive''.
Air New Zealand chief executive Christopher Luxon said the move to shrink fares was the biggest overhaul of the airline's domestic pricing structure in more than a decade.
It would mean more than three-quarters of a million seats a year would be available for less than $50.
Fares on the airline's main trunk routes, linking Auckland to Christchurch and Wellington, and Christchurch to Wellington, were also shrinking.
The airline's longest domestic service - a two-hour 1174km direct flight between Auckland and Invercargill - was being launched in August and would have seats available from $79.
Tourism Industry Aotearoa spokeswoman Ann-Marie Johnson said it was ''too soon to say what sort of pick-up'' the low airfares would get.
