Air NZ To Introduce 11 More Flights A Week To Australia

[Wirraway]

Dow Jones
Monday September 22, 14:39 PM AEST

Air NZ To Introduce 11 More Flights A Week To Australia

WELLINGTON (Dow Jones)--Air New Zealand said Monday it will introduce 11 new flights a week between New Zealand and Australia, in a further sign of intensified competition on the trans Tasman route.

Some of the new flights, which start Oct. 29, will use Airbus A320 twinjet aircraft, with the first of 15 ordered by the airline having arrived last week.

The biggest increase in flights is to Melbourne with an additional six a week, Air New Zealand said in a statement. Sydney also gets another three flights and Brisbane gets two.

Last week Qantas Airways announced it was cutting trans Tasman fares and Virgin Blue unit Pacific Blue said it would start flying the trans Tasman route from February next year.

Those moves followed Air New Zealand announcing lower fares between Australia and New Zealand through the extension of its discount domestic business model to the trans Tasman route.

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[CT7]

Great!
And I bet I'll still not be able to get a standby seat on them...

[Wirraway]

Tues "Sydney Morning Herald"

Tasman war hots up as Air NZ adds 11 flights
By Scott Rochfort
September 23, 2003

Air New Zealand has raised the stakes in the looming aviation war over the Tasman, confirming yesterday it would add 11 flights a week between Australia and New Zealand from next month.

With the number of seats available for the trans-Tasman route expected to increase as much as 40 per cent over the next six months, Air NZ said its flight schedule would be lifted to 125 flights a week, with additional services from Melbourne to Auckland and Christchurch, and Sydney to Christchurch.

Air NZ denied suggestions the doubling of services between Brisbane and Christchurch to four a week was directly aimed at undermining Virgin Blue's designs on the Tasman market.

"This has been planned for a long time, based around the new aircraft we have bought," an Air NZ spokesman said.

Virgin Blue's New Zealand offshoot, Pacific Blue, announced last week it planned to launch a daily service between its New Zealand base in Christchurch and Brisbane on February 1.

Aided by the delivery of Air NZ's first Airbus A320 last Friday, the extra services will start with the launch of the airline's two-class Tasman Express service on October 29.

The airline still has a further 14 A320s due for delivery, and Air NZ said the aircraft had 146 seats, compared to the 114-seat Boeing 737s currently used.

Air NZ's low-cost subsidiary, Freedom Air, is also expected to lift its number of services to Australia by the end of the year.

Qantas operates 111 services over the Tasman each week, with Emirates expected to lift its weekly services from Australia to Auckland to 21 by October 26.

Emirates entered the trans-Tasman market early last month with its fleet of Boeing 777-300 aircraft.

With Air NZ and Qantas slashing fares over the Tasman by 20 to 40 per cent starting next month, the New Zealand Commerce Commission is expected to announce its findings on the proposed alliance between the airlines within the next week.  Meanwhile, Macquarie Airport reported yesterday that passenger traffic through Sydney Airport increased 3.6 per cent in August, compared to the same month the previous year.

With signs the global aviation industry has rebounded from the SARS crisis, international passengers for the month had increased 0.3 per cent, with domestic traffic up 5.4 per cent.

The Federal Minister for Transport, John Anderson, and his Singapore counterpart, Yeo Cheow Tong, are expected to sign a new air services agreement this morning. It is speculated the agreement could bar Singapore Airlines from competing with Qantas on the lucrative Australia to Los Angeles route for at least another two years.

Air NZ shares fell 0.5c to 45c, while Qantas fell 2c to $3.20.

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[yellow rocket]

Air NZ's low-cost subsidiary, Freedom Air, is also expected to lift its number of services to Australia by the end of the year.

Oh REALLY?? Interesting to see how that will be achieved with their 4 733's doing 4 Tasman sectors per day already.

[1279shp]

With a repainted Air NZ 737-300 that the Airbus will be replacing on some routes? :ok:

[yellow rocket]

Not possible until the ALPA Air NZ agreement forbidding Freedom from having more than 4 aircraft is withrawn...which is why NZ got ZK-NGO from BA even though it was destined for SJ.

The Agreement prevents cannibalisation of the Koru by the Yellow Peril - and therefore wage and workplace conditions with it.

[RaTa]

With all the new entrants and increased sevices that Air NZ and QF have, I can see a sea of red ink developing. :uhoh:

[Eurocap]

Interesting times ahead.

:confused: :confused: