James Meager: Associate Minister of Transport on Air New Zealand's flight performance for April

Just 60% of Air New Zealand's trans-Tasman flights jetted off on time last month. 

A report by the Ministry of Transport shows aviation performance for April. 

It reveals 82% of the airline's domestic flights were on time, taking off within 15 minutes of their scheduled time. 

Air New Zealand's highest cancellation rate was on its Rotorua to Auckland route, with just 52 of 65 scheduled flights flown.  

Associate Transport Minister James Meager told Mike Hosking these figures aren't acceptable, but will be helpful. 

He says it will help them focus on the regions that are suffering from poor performance. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
At last, we have these numbers that we so often
talk about, as I have been alluding to this morning
when it comes to flying around the country. Now, this
is the Ministry of Transport Aviation Flight Times and Productivity Report.
Now these are stats for April. They show Air New
Zealand at just over sixty percent for example, on time
departures for the trans Tasmin that's a disaster. Domestically they're
at eighty two percent, Jetstar seventy five percent. James meag Is,

(00:22):
the Associate Minister of transportant is with us.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Good morning morning, Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Are these numbers acceptable or not?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well? I think they are a snapshall in time. I
think for the regions they aren't acceptable in terms of
some of those really high cancelation rates. So at least
it gives us some transparency about what's happening and can
focus on some of those regions that are really really
suffering from poor performance.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
When you talk about cancelation rates, what do you refer
to specifically? I'm looking broadly speaking, there's a couple of
randoms in there. Northland seems to be a problem for
Air New Zealand. Some of your great barrier airlines seem
to have troubles, but generally the cancelation rates around two
or three percent, which I wouldn't have thought see end
of the world.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Is it? Yeah, I think around the national average is
about five point two. So you've got to bear in
mind for this report, it's a snapshot in time for
eightpol so it takes into account cyclone, tam and easter.
So your Northland top of the North routes are going
to be higher this month. What we're going to need
to look at is the trend over the next few
months to see where it all settles out, and I'd
be looking for improvement over time. That's the point for

(01:21):
of how I'm having met reports.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Okay, so this is low tide in your view as
far as you're concerned or not.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
I would hope that for those northern regions that's about
as high as against for some continent weather events. But
if you look at places like Topaor and Timoru and Okoteca,
they are higher than average, and they've been high for
quite a while and they weren't as affected by that
weather event. So we want to make sure the airlines
keep focused on those routes and make sure they improve their.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Performance see it's easy to do this, and I know
it is a snapshot in time, and I've read it,
and I've looked through all the numbers, and you can
fascinate yourself till you're blue in the face. I would
like to see it higher, of course I would, But
at about eighty ish percent overall to take off and land,
it isn't bad, is it.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
I think in terms of delays it's not bad. But
when you look at some of the high rates of
cancelations for the regions, that really impacts people who are
needing to travel in the regions for work, particularly because
they're already geographically isolated. So yeah, I think on generally,
our airlines do a relatively good job, but when it
comes to serving the regions, we've really got to make
sure we focus on those high rates and at least

(02:24):
get them down to where everyone else is performance.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Okay, So what are you going to do about it?
If anything, apart from jaw boneit.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Well, I think it's good to have the data to
actually prove the point that some of those regions are
finding it tough. Government can do a few things that
can look at what it's doing to invest in airline
and airport infrastructure to reduce the costs on airlines to
make it easier for them to travel. We're always going
to be affected by weather, but there are some things
around workforce development, access to pilots, access to engineers that

(02:51):
the government can do for workforce development, and also access
to capital to help with purchase of parts and new
planes and the global shortages.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
See. One of the interesting things was when I started
looking into this regionally, everyone going, nah, don't do the
jets service because that's easy. The regionals are the problem.
And yet if you look at the Tasman what a crap,
what an absolute shit show that is, and you've got
nothing but jets and no one does it properly.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah. Again, I think you've got to look at that
trend over time for the jets. We do have data
trans tansment going back a few months and it shows
that it sort of bounces up around about that eighty
percent all the time. I think for April and the jets,
You've also got to look at some of the weather
events over in Australia. So there wasn't going to take
this time around. But you're right, I mean, cancelation rates
are always going to jump up around and there's probably
no internationally accepted standard. But if you look at overall

(03:40):
for the likes of your domestic jets, that's around about
point eight percent cancelation. If you look at domestic routes,
it's about five point two percent.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
So what we're coming up with, and see Jesus Heaven
for Vidim and apologies with the airlines, but I mean
what you're coming up with, you've just given yourself away
to a degree. Yeah, we've got a bit of weather there,
and then we had a storm there, and then we
had a strike there, And I mean what you're going
to find over time is there's always something somewhere and
that's going to skew the figures, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Yeah, on one off occasions at will. But if I
want to look at making sure those trends over time
are going downwards and that airlines are focusing on the
areas that are causing issues for travelers, Like if you
look at twenty percent cancelation rates for Kaitaia, they're probably
too high to be acceptable.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
James, Can I be honest? I mean, fitty younger, I
mean honestly, fitty younger. If you drive, I mean, for
goodness sake, It's like, what do you expect in a
third world country, which we are these days? Sadly, do
you honestly expect to hop on a seven three seven
to fit a younger and take off on time and
be served a cocktail?

Speaker 2 (04:43):
No? And I don't think anyone does. And look for
the younger, there's about eighty flights a month they think
in and out of there. So I think people don't
expect that. What they do expect is to have some
reasonable form of connectivity, so you aren't spending a serifficent
amount of times in the car to get places. And
like the West Coast for the younger far North yep,
they are geographically isolated and it's harder to get around.
But we can do some stuff to support those regions.

(05:05):
It's important to support our regions.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
Of course. It is what is the James Meager scale
of acceptability for regional New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
I think if you look at the national average being
five percent, I would hope that most regions would like
to think that they are doing no worse than the
national average. And of course it's hard because averages, you know,
half the people are always going to be above that.
But I think over time, if you're talking about Hokatika
rot there or timorary places like that, if you pour
them down from the ten to sevens into the fives
and fours, I think that's improvement.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Okay, we haven't had a chance to talk since you
had your extraordinary thought bubble on reorganizing the domestic airline
service in this country with government help. How far have
you progressed that particular idea.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, so ministers are still discussing the options around what
we can do to support infrastructure. We've made some investments,
particularly in the West coast. Hakatiki report made some investments
over there recently, so it's still in train. But I mean,
you're right, it's a difficult problem to try and fix
because it is about competition, but it's also about the
economics of flying airlines. And I've talked to the likes

(06:06):
of Sound there who have excellent flight performance but still
find it difficult to operate just because of the costs
of running airlines. So we are making progress on that.
To start a reporting will help airline price, It will
help better airport infrastructure, will help government. Lowering its own
fees over time will help as well. It all goes
into the mix.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Okay, appreciate your time. You have a good weekend. James Meaga,
Associate Transport, we're still discussing. Tell you what a discussion was,
aviation fuel, who would be getting places for more from
the Mic, Asking Breakfast.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
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