Ryan Bridge: Flying will always be expensive in regional NZ

Here we go again with the whinge fest about Air New Zealand's prices. 

I get it.  I try book the same flights as everybody else and when you're trying to fly some obscure route from this province to province its gets expensive. Quickly. 

But here we are again with politicians telling us fibs - telling us they can wave a magic wand and fix all of our problems. 

This time is James Meager - going in to bat for the South Island. He says flying shouldn't just be for the rich, the government is going to take action and is talking about underwriting airlines.

Do we want the government underwriting the purchase of turbo prop planes? Really?

We've heard this all before of course. They've gone after the banks, the supermarkets, and the price of petrol. 

I can't tell you how many painstaking and frustrating interviews I've done with ministers of all colours and stripes who swear black and blue they'll sort it out and then don't.

What's worse? The person that punches you in the nose? Or the doctor that says they'll fix it when they know you can't? 

Here's the thing, if you wanna book the main trunk line, it's relatively inexpensive, providing you're not booking last minute. There's Jetstar keeping Air New Zealand honest. That's competition.

But if you're flying Kerikeri to Dunedin tomorrow, guess what? It will cost plenty. Why? Because they've got you over a barrel. You need to fly. It's short notice. 

8000 people live in Kerikeri and 130,000 in Dunedin, these routes are often empty. 

The fact is running a profitable airline in a sparsely populated country is bloody difficult.  And we want them to be profitable, otherwise we have no airline and we're a backwater banana republic. 

And the regional players - they're no better off. Air Chathams the other week was threatening to pull out of Whakatane unless the council paid for a new Cessna. 

Everyone compares us to the Australians - but have a look at outback Queensland. You pay thousands just to get to Brisbane. 

Show me a headline about flights being cheaper from Dunedin to Bali than Dunedin to Auckland and I'll show you one about Mount Isa to Brisbane and Brisbane to Canada.

Population matters and guess what? We're a blip on the radar. And as for the promise that some politician will swoop in and save the day - it's about as reliable as planes.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here we go again with the winging about Air New
Zealand's prices. And I get it. I try and book
the same flights as everybody else. And when you're trying
to fly from some obscure route, you know, from this
province to that province, stuff gets expensive really quickly. But
here we go again with politicians telling us FIBs, telling
us they can wave a magic wand and fix things.

(00:22):
This time it's James Megha from National going into bat
for the South Island. Can't blame the guy flying. Shouldn't
just be for the rich who says we're going to
take action talking about underwriting airlines. Do we really want
the government underwriting the purchase of turboprop planes? Really when
we already own Air New Zealand. We've heard this all before,

(00:44):
of course, the banks, the supermarkets, the price of petrol,
you name it. I can't tell you how many painstaking,
frustrating interviews I have done with ministers of all colors
and stripes, to be fair, who swear black and blue
they'll sort it out and then they don't. What's worse
the person that punches you in the nose or the
doctor that says they'll fix it when they know they can't,

(01:06):
and you just left with a bent nose and no hope.
Here's the thing. If you want to book the main
trunk line, it is relatively inexpensive to do so, providing
you're not booking last minute. There's Jetstar keeping Air New
Zealand on us. That's competition. But if you're flying Kenny
Kenny to Dunedin tomorrow, guess what it'll cost you? A
billion dollars? Why? Because they're basically got you over a barrel,

(01:31):
haven't they You need to fly? It's short notice. Business
customers normally booked these flights. Eight thousand people live in
Ketty Kenny, one hundred and thirty thousand in Dunedin. Tourism
is seasonal, these routes are often empty. Air New Zealand
has major aircraft engine issues. The fact is running a
profitable airline in a sparsely populated country is bloody difficult,

(01:56):
and we want them to be profitable. Otherwise we have
no airline and then we're a backwater banana republic and
the regional players they're not doing too well either. Ere
Chathams the other week, remember this, threatening to pull out
of Fakatana unless the council paid for a new Cessna.
Everyone compares us to the Ossies, but have a look

(02:16):
at outback Queensland. You pay thousands just to get to Brisbane.
Show me a headline about flights being cheaper from Dunedin
to Bali than Dunedin to Auckland, and I'll show you
one about Mount Isa to Brisbane and Brisbane to Canada.
Population matters, and guess what, We're a blip on the radar.

(02:39):
And as for that promise from a politician that they'll
swoop in and save the day, about as reliable as
the playing schedule itself. For more from Early Edition with
Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks. It'd be from
five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.