Pacific Blue starts southern link
10:30AM Wednesday April 02, 2008
By Grant Bradley - NZ Herald
Pacific Blue is in expansion mode. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Domestic airline competition is stepping up with the announcement Pacific Blue is to expand its network to include daily direct flights between Christchurch and Dunedin from July 1.
The airline said it would fly one daily return service between Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin. All fares for the Dunedin service, including the special launch fares, go on sale from 9am today.
Special launch fares to Dunedin can be bought until Monday for the period from July 1 to August 31.
For a one-way trip booked on the internet the special fare from Christchurch is $39, from Wellington via Christchurch it is $69, and from Auckland via Christchurch $79.
The airline is getting a third Boeing 737 aircraft dedicated to the New Zealand domestic network in June.
Since its launch in November it has been flying just two aircraft along the main trunk.
Commercial general manager Adrian Hamilton-Manns said the Dunedin service would provide Air New Zealand with its first major competition to the city.
"When we started we said we would not just fly on the main trunk route but also go into the regions."
The airline was investigating expanding services to Invercargill, Hamilton and Palmerston North.
Pacific Blue said it had carried more than 300,000 passengers on its main trunk network in its first four months of flying.
Air New Zealand has boosted its capacity on domestic flights in February by nearly 10 per cent compared to a year ago, during which time there had been intense competition and fares as low as $1.