Forum Archive Index - May 2001

["G Stolwyk" <stolwyk@wave.co.nz>]

 

 

Charlie,

 

When we talk about " landing rights " I take it that we are both talking about Virgin carrying passengers to and from NZ. That is quite separate from solely working in NZ.

 

When Virgin was mentioned, Qantas was operating in NZ on a temporary basis and Freedom Air was as yet not mentioned.

 

As soon as Virgin's plane was spotted in Wellington, things changed.( It could have been that just before or after that event,  Freedom Air announced that it would work in NZ ).

 

Qantas announced that the service in NZ would be a permanent feature, and they had also made a liaison with a local airline to bring in passengers from the provincial centres - feeder routes - to the main airfields.

---

The Government had 2 objectives:

To increase competition and to ensure that the politically important feeder - or supply routes were attended to.

 

These objectives can now be achieved - we still have to await the results.

 

It will be difficult for Virgin to operate in NZ in these changed conditions; in any case it is only a small market to operate in.

 

They might still make a profit if they operated between some main centres and then proceeded to take passengers to Australia.

 

However, Qantas also looks after the expensive feeder routes, why should Virgin not have to do so?

 

There is no need for the Government to make any concessions to Virgin, as the conditions have changed!

 

Such concessions could have made it more difficult for Qantas to work in NZ .

  

On the other hand, Virgin may well have forced Qantas' hand! And some think that both Air and Qantas did their best to squeeze Virgin, before that airline even flew the first mile!

 

Those are my opinions!  

 

Gerry