Flying in the face of fairness

Otago Daily Times

25-04-2025

There is little choice if ever you want or need to travel out of the South in something other than a private vehicle.
There are no passenger trains, high-speed or otherwise, and just a couple of Intercity coaches a day trundling north up the east coast.
You could always fly, of course. That's if your pockets are very deep, or if someone else is prepared to pay, or you have the foresight to book your trip a year or so in advance.
But you have very little choice of who to book with other than Air New Zealand, although Jetstar offers flights to Auckland from Dunedin and Queenstown.
Claims of extortionate pricing on Air NZ flights connecting the hundreds of thousands who live in Otago and Southland with the rest of the country have been swelling in recent days after Tauranga man Scott Koster filed a complaint with the Commerce Commission about sky-high fares.
Otago Daily Times readers have since shared their anxieties about having to pay Air NZ return fares approaching $1000 to fly to the top of the South Island or across Cook Strait.
Others say they have eschewed travelling at all for family or work events because they cannot afford the prices.
At the moment, our national airline is not winning any friends and appears not to care much about that, or to be doing anything to remedy the situation.
Unfortunately, the strong, enduring and proud reputation of Air NZ is at risk from this seemingly worsening bad publicity over ridiculously high fares, which could also see you paying more than several hundred dollars each way just to fly to Christchurch.
Occasionally, an issue really resonates with the public and the Letters to the Editor page heats up with debate. This is one such topic.
Thursday's cartoon by Shaun Yeo says it all as far as most southerners are concerned, with dollar notes dripping out the back of the koru on the tail of an ATR.
Depending on which figures you use, Dunedin remains about the sixth or seventh-largest city in the country.
Yet, Air NZ, presumably for reasons of its own convenience, insists on defining it as a regional centre.
Most complaints about expensive flights are met with the response that the best way to avoid paying so much is to book earlier.
It's not as if Air NZ is unaware of how much of a monopoly it holds and how few choices there are for Kiwi travellers, especially in the South.
In a recent New Zealand Listener article, Air NZ's senior sustainability manager Jacob Snelgrove said 60% of domestic flights were under 350km in length. He acknowledged aviation was a public asset, with the country in the top five of OECD nations for flights per capita per year, due to a lack of high-speed trains and regional motorway networks.
Air NZ is quick to discount claims it is price gouging. As Ian Richardson's deliciously wicked Francis Urquhart in the House of Cards would have said: ''You might very well think that; I couldn't possibly comment.''
It is not often we find ourselves agreeing with Regional Development Minister Shane Jones, but in these rocketing airfares he has a real case to pursue when it comes to protecting regional New Zealand.
He has also expressed concern that the airline's mana is slipping.
We acknowledge there are definite pressures on Air NZ from events beyond its control which are naturally going to lift prices.
We also recognise that higher airfares may be one way to signal that, in a warming world, the cost of emissions should keep rising.
However, with Air NZ expecting to make about $20 million from unused travel credits dating back to the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, why couldn't the airline use that windfall to partially subsidise cheaper regional flights?
It's way past time for Air NZ to stop its glib responses. The airline needs to get on board with the fact that, as our national carrier and in its privileged position acting as a monopoly on most routes, it has ethical as well as financial obligations to Kiwis.
That may mean community service sits at the front of the plane and profits need to go a little further down the back.