Sam Peate: Entrada Travel Group chief operating officer on InterCity buses seeing more popularity following Iran war

With fuel prices rising amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, more people have turned to buses in order to get around.

National bus company InterCity says it has increased fares in the face of escalating diesel prices, but the increase in demand has helped offset the costs.

Entrada Travel Group chief operating officer Sam Peate says they're hoping this trend will continue even after oil prices come down.

"We know that we've got a comfortable and convenient way to travel, we've got wi-fi on board on all of our services - and for people who are looking for a bit of extra luxury, we've got a gold class seat option."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now, with fuel prices climbing in airfares rising, apparently Kiwis
are going back to the old basics hopping on a bus.
Since the war in Iran began, inter City says ticket
sales are up by as much as thirty percent. Sam
Peter is the chief operating officer at Encharda, which is
in Chida Travel Group, which is in charge of inter City.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hi Sam, Hi here, how are you doing?

Speaker 1 (00:19):
I'm very well? Thank you. Now these people who are
buying tickets, are they people who have caught the bus
before or are they virgins?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Some of them have caught the bus before, but probably
a long time ago. So we're seeing some people with
memories of traveling on into city and their youth, and
they're coming back to looking at in the city as
a reliable and cost effective option to get around the country.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
I'm guessing it's inter city as opposed to a plane.
Is that what's going on?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Look, I think that what people are looking for as
they're choosing bus travel as a smart and practical way
to get around. And there'll be some people who are
switching from flights and other people who'll be reconsidering filling
up the car with a tank of petrol and looking
at that price. Well, so there'll be a range of
factors for.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Sure, how much of your ticket's gone up by Oh, we've.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Had to make some small price adjustments, but really it's
only a dollar or two on an average ticket price,
Whereas what we're seeing is most of the increase in
diesel costs that we're experiencing at the moment. We're actually
able to balance that with the increase in passengers that
we have on board, so that's really helped us limit

(01:26):
the price increases that we've had to pass through.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
So can you give me a comparison? I mean, you
choose the route, because I don't want to hit you
with one you won't know, But give me a comparison
with what you guys would charge on a particular route
and what a plane would a plane ticket would cost.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
I think if you looked at say Auckland to Napier,
which is about four hundred kilometers, the average ticket price
on Interocity last month was around about eighty five dollars
to get from Auckland through to Napier. If you were
going to fill up your car with petrol to get there,
that would easily be one hundred and twenty dollars probably
to do that. And look, I don't know what the

(02:01):
air New Zealand prices, but I dare say it would
be quite a bit more than.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
That as well. It would be how long does that
trip take?

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Then? On the bus off from Auckland to Napier, you look,
you are looking at probably a seven to eight hour
trip to get there. However, we take you right from
the city center in Auckland right through to the city
center in Napier, and we have the mail brakes and
rest stops along the way. So once you factor all
that in and compare that against waiting around at the airport,

(02:27):
checking and checking out getting to and from the airport,
it's actually not all that much different.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Would that be the longest distance or the furtherest that
you would go? Time wise?

Speaker 2 (02:37):
The longest trip you can take with us is Auckland
to Wellington actually, which is six hundred and fifty odd
kilometers and that's eleven hours. Now, most of the people
on that bus actually aren't going all the way. They'll
be hopping off in Hamilton or Tauerpo or Palms North
along the way. But there are some people who do
travel the full distance.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Mate, do you do an overnight stop or something or
do you like these people bringing their little neck pillows
and sleeping on the seats.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Oh so, yeah, we do have an overnight overnight trip,
and yeah, a lot of the passengers on board the
overnight trip will be asleep. And we have daytime trips
as well, but we always have, you know, convenient rest
stops along the way through, so you can hop off,
get a cup of coffee, and then get back on
and enjoy the next leg.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Do you reckon? This is a kind of thing, like
is this a behavior changing thing where it will last
beyond the crisis or the minute that the petrol comes
back to more manageable levels, we're back in our cars
and on the planes.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Well, we certainly hope. So you know, we know that
we've got a comfortable and convenient way to travel. We've
got Wi Fi on board all of our services, and
for people who are looking for a bit of extra luxury,
we've got a Gold class seat option, which is like
a business class seating option, so that's only a small
upgrade to the standard ticket price. So we're hoping that

(03:55):
as more people discover the end of city option, they
will stick around for the long term good stuff.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Hey Sam, thank you very much for your time.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
Mate.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
That's Sam Pete who's the Introre Travel Group New Zealand
chief operating officer.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
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