Irene King: Aviation Commentator on Jetstar making big moves to expand routes in NZ

A big commitment from Jetstar and its parent Qantas as both airlines make big moves to expand routes.

Jetstar's adding new routes from Brisbane to Queenstown and Hamilton to Christchurch and increasing capacity on five domestic and trans-Tasman routes.

Qantas is also expanding routes and will begin flying state-of-the-art A220 aircraft between Wellington and Brisbane from February.

Aviation Commentator Irene King shares her thoughts with Ryan. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jetstar is lighting a fire under air New Zealand. Biggest
ever expansion here, six hundred thousand extra seats. New routes
like Hamilton to christ Church great for the regions, Seasonal
roots like Queenstown De Brizzy great for tourists Auckland christ Church.
You're getting an extra three hundred thousand seats a year
from eight flights a day up to eleven. Irene Kings
the aviation commentated with us this morning iron good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Good morning there.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
They've seen an opening here with these in New Zealand
injury issues you reckon.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Oh absolutely, Look, I think this is a great endorsement
of a recovery in the New Zealand economy from an
international operator that actually understands a lot about the New
Zealand market.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Is it also because they've been I mean I saw
the Quantus results. They've got a bit of cash because
they've been doing pretty well in Asia and other places.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yes, absolutely, you know Quantus's balance sheet has been significantly
strengthening over the last two three years, as opposed to
in New Zealand, who we've seen a significant weekening. We've
also got capacity coming out of Asia as jet Stasia's
shut down, and we've got additional aircraft coming into Quantus

(01:12):
as well, so all of those things are combining and
you know they're really starting to up their game now
in New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Does that mean in New Zealand will have to lower
their prices if we have six hundred and sixty thousand
new low con seats.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Oh, look, you know this is a significant change. And yas,
I've felt for quite some time that Any Zealant has
to really come to grips with it's domestic pricing strategies
now that they are subject to significant complaint and the
sustainability when you look at, you know, the options you've
got of traveling across to Australia now really really come

(01:51):
into question.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
How much do you think we could be shaving off
the average seat price?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Well, look, you look at what Jetster typically charged in
the New Zealand market, which is just under one hundred
dollars per seat orbit you know jet Sector here, any
Zerment typically when you look at their charges around about

(02:19):
two point fifty. So you know there's a significant price
disparity between the two. Now I understand that the operators
you know, are quite significantly different in the services that
they provide and things like that. But New Zealand is
a price driven sensitive market and even you're seeing, you know,

(02:40):
corporate and business travelers shift onto jetst With this extra
capacity that Jets is putting in the market, that shift
is going to accelerate because every business is now priced sensitive.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
I ren appreciate you announced this this morning. Thank you,
Irene King, the aviation commentated Moor.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
From early edition with Ryan Bridge.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
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