Originally Posted by jarden
Regarding population. Jetstar already serve small centres in Australia e.g. Ballina and Proserpine So don't say NZ cities are too small for them to go after. Some are similar to Darwin and Mackay in population terms.
Hamilton is 202.000
Tauranga is 130 000
Napier/Hastings is 125 000
Palmerston North is 85 000
Yes, although the population numbers may look close to what destinations they fly to in Australia, but what you don't see is that Hamilton and Tauranga are about 1 to 1 and a half hours from Auckland by car.
So the flights from Hamilton and Tauranga will have to be at least the same price for flights from Auckland for the leisure traveller to use them, otherwise it becomes cheaper in the passengers mind to travel to Auckland to fly.
But first Jetstar may want to increase services to and from Dunedin, AirNZ have three to four Auckland direct Dunedin services a day, vs one from Jetstar. Plus a multitude of connections for people through both Christchurch and Auckland.