Airfare costs cutting off city: Clark

Otago Daily Times

24-04-2025

Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark feels the city is becoming more disconnected from the rest of the country due to the high cost of airfares — and it seems the situation is unlikely to change any time soon.
Jetstar said yesterday it had no plans to establish flights with Invercargill.
Speaking to the Otago Daily Times yesterday, Mr Clark said he constantly received feedback from residents and tourists about the high costs for flights to and from the city.
He believed this had an impact on the region, especially after Air New Zealand cut its direct flight to Wellington.
"People in general are saying two things: it's costly to travel internally within New Zealand and not having [a direct] Wellington flight — it's time-consuming and more expensive because a lot of times you need to spend a night there.
"A good example is Karen, my partner. Not too long ago, she was going to go with me to Wellington — I was going for work and she was going to pay her own way — and we booked an Auckland-to-Wellington flight, a return flight via Christchurch for her, about three or four weeks before the actual flight date.
"[The cost] was ... well above $1000 return."
He said he spoke with Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran when the airline decided to cut the direct flight from Wellington at the beginning of the year, and was told it was due to maintenance costs and fuel prices.
"I personally think that it's an easy option just to take out the most southern one, which is frustrating.
"I appreciate that we've got a direct flight to Auckland, but I understand the Invercargill and Wellington direct flight was more than 80% occupancy, so it's not as though it wasn't being supported."
He believed one of the major problems was the lack of competition in the Invercargill market.
"My thoughts are anywhere you don't have competition, you don't have competitive prices. I mean, no doubt about that.
"The thing is [the airlines] would be here if they thought there was a competitive market for them. We've had players here before. We had that Australian company that was here at one stage, but they didn't survive."
Many comments in social media talked about the possibility of another airline operating from Invercargill.
When approached for comment, Jetstar said it operated flights from Queenstown and Dunedin airports, but a spokesman said there were no plans to establish flights from Invercargill.
"While we're always looking to open up new destinations for travellers, we don't have any plans to launch flights to Invercargill at the moment.
"Right now, Jetstar is focused on the launch of three new transtasman routes in June, which will provide more choice and low fares for Kiwis."
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