Air NZ promises rock bottom fares
A report by ONE News in New Zealand and TVNZ says Air New Zealand has made a record profit and says travellers can expect fares as low as $1 on domestic services, with the national carrier making $214 million for the year to the end of June, 123% up on the previous year. And it says next year will be even better, despite the arrival of competitor Pacific Blue.
Air New Zealand chairman John Palmer says it is a good result, in the light of ongoing competitive pressures, increased fuel costs and excess landing charges at some airports.
“Air New Zealand is announcing its best profit performance in a decade,” Palmer says.
“Air New Zealand has had some good wins and some losses, but we’ve never lost sight of what it takes to be world class.”
To stave off competition from Pacific Blue’s new domestic service Air New Zealand is planning to reconfigure its Boeing 737s on the domestic route into business and budget sections, with Chief executive Rob Fyfe saying 16 of their planes will be rebuilt.
The front section will cater for business frequent flyers offering more space and complimentary inflight services, with the other a budget service with passengers expected to buy their food and beverages.
Fyfe is also promising a simplified fare structure for domestic flights and deals such as buy one get one free child fares. “We’ve got a package of fares that we’ve got on sale and we’ll keep dropping the prices progressively until all those fares are sold, all the way down to a dollar if we need to,” he says.
“Competition will certainly have an impact if you like on the business, but we don’t expect it to put a dent on our profits for the year coming.”
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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