It comes as the cost of petrol climbs towards $4 per litre in most city centres and jet fuel prices have also significantly increased in the past fortnight.
Mainland Air chief executive Phil Kean said it was a matter of keeping a close eye on the price increases ‘‘week-by-week, and even day-by-day’’.
‘‘We’re still carrying on the way we are, but for how long, who knows?
‘‘All you can do is pass [the price] on to the customer, but how long can you keep passing it on?’’
Mr Kean said the reporting of fuel price increases was often misleading because those reporting it often omitted GST.
‘‘It always makes the prices look better, but ignores up to 15% of the costs.
‘‘We get a letter from the fuel company every Monday, telling us it’s going to go up at one minute past 12 the next day.’’
New Zealand website nzoilwatch.com said yesterday, there was an in-country supply of 16 days worth of diesel, 29 days of petrol and 22 days of jet fuel.
The ongoing war between the United States and Iran meant ‘‘no-one knew’’ when the fuel issue would sort itself out, Mr Kean said.
‘‘April 20 is the last [fuel] ship scheduled to come to New Zealand, so what do we do after that?
‘‘[US President Donald] Trump has certainly made the world drop to its knees.
‘‘He hasn’t just affected the Middle East; he’s affected the whole world.’’
The Oamaru-based New Zealand Airline Academy was also being hit hard.
Lead instructor Celroy Mascarenhas said it had not needed to reduce services yet, but the academy was keeping a watchful eye on rising fuel prices.
‘‘We can pass some costs on to customers, but we also have to absorb some costs, too.
‘‘Most people view this for what it is, which is a temporary problem [in that] it’s not going to be something that will last for years.’’
Mr Mascarenhas said he was nonetheless worried about the fuel situation in terms of supply.
‘‘If there’s no fuel then I guess everything just comes to a standstill really.
‘‘I think we’re in the same boat as everyone else.
‘‘Everyone else is going through the same thing and hoping, fingers crossed, that does not happen.’’
Aviation Industry Association chief executive Simon Wallace said flight schools were in a particularly difficult situation because they could not pass on costs to domestic students.
For one mid-sized flight training organisation, the monthly fuel bill alone had gone up by $42,000, he said.
‘‘Fuel increases cannot be passed on to domestically enrolled students, so this means the flight schools are absorbing these increases.
‘‘The risk is now the medium-term impact on affordability, training continuity, and course completions.
‘‘Higher fuel prices, combined with rising aircraft parts, maintenance, insurance, staffing and other operating costs, are making aviation training progressively harder to fund.’’
Mr Wallace said flight schools were saving fuel costs by reducing flying frequency, but this resulted in training taking longer to complete.
‘‘The practical reality is that no flight training organisation can absorb cost increases of this scale.
‘‘Operators are moving into defensive settings, including tighter cashflow management and deferred expenditure and some are actively considering what happens if supply becomes constrained.’’
Mr Wallace said the fuel crisis was happening at a time when operators were already challenged with a cost-of-living crisis and supply chain issues in obtaining parts, along with workforce issues, particularly a shortage of engineers.
‘‘There is no support from the government this time around and there are many of our members that have contracts with government agencies ... where we are having to negotiate with these government agencies to apply fuel surcharges.’’
- Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday ruled out reducing the cost of road user charges (RUCs) to give some reprieve to diesel users.
The price of diesel has increased so much in the past week that it is now the same price as 91 petrol.
While the government excise tax is part of the price of petrol, diesel users pay their tax through RUCs.
With diesel now on a par with petrol, the extra cost of RUCs has pushed the price of operating a diesel vehicle well beyond that of a petrol car.
Ms Willis said while she had sympathy for diesel users there were no plans to reduce the price of road user charges.
‘‘We’ve chosen not to take that measure,’’ Ms Willis said.
For now the government has chosen to supplement the incomes of families with young children on lower incomes ‘‘and we stand ready to offer other forms of support should we judge them to be prudent, timely and necessary’’.
— Additional reporting RNZ
