Air New Zealand strongly refutes suggestions made today by Origin Pacific Airways that it is trying to stop it flying a non-stop service from Hamilton to Christchurch.
Air New Zealand's Senior Vice President of Sales/Distribution/Regional Airlines and Cargo, Norm Thompson, said the airline had been examining the Hamilton-Christchurch service for the past two years and committed to implementing it in July after analysis determined it was profitable.
Mr Thompson said that during the planning phase the airline had been in talks with the airports and the travel industry in both cities.
"Any suggestion that Air New Zealand has chosen at the spur of the moment to place 66-seat ATR aircraft on the route is ridiculous. Anybody who knows anything about operating an airline knows that the decision to operate on a new route is not made overnight," he said.
"Air New Zealand originally planned to announce the commencement of its service a couple of weeks ago, but decided to delay the announcement until this week's Tourism Industry Association conference in Queenstown, so that the new service was foremost in the mind of the industry."
Mr Thompson said attempts to label the introduction of the Hamilton-Christchurch service and recent announcement of Air Nelson's 12 percent growth in services (effective November 21) as anti-competitive were nonsensical.
"The fact that we launched a direct Napier-Christchurch service last year in response to customer demand is proof enough that we are continually looking at meeting needs in the regions. The announced direct Hamilton to Christchurch service is but one more step in fulfilling customer demand.
"The reality is that since the launch of Express almost a year ago more New Zealanders want to travel. We've experienced a 23 percent increase in passenger growth, one million additional passengers - and a resulting lift in revenue - by listening to what our customers want," he said.
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