AnnieNell

Kiwijet is planning to launch NZ's first true budget airline in December 2007.They plan to offer domestic flights between Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin & Invercargill at that time. They are planning to compete with the larger carriers by offering a full range of amenities such as, free wine & beer, a generous luggage allowance & complimentary transfers to Akl & ChCH city centres.

They are planning to be able to offer competitive rates by having " Moonlight Specials", that is, late night flights were passengers can only travel with carry-on luggage. The hold will be kept free to carry post/packages etc. to supplement the cost.

No news on costs yet, let's hope they cause Air NZ to become competitive. They launch their website in September [EMAIL="www.kiwijet.net"]

Fingers crossed that this comes to pass.

BEVS

Aye. fingers and toes crossed.
I hope it goes well and they extend the service to Nelson.
There is no competition at all here since Origin Pacific went to the wall.

Apple13

These airlines come and go in NZ, they survive for a year or two then go bust. Just part of a small, spreadout population.

brussels_sprout

When the government owns such a large part of an airline, they have no incentive for proper regulation, smaller countries than NZ have properly competing services. Air NZ will reduce costs on the runs that KiwiJet will operate and stick the prices up a little on all the others to compensate. In Europe, the government would ensure that there was proper competition, but if the government owns a large share of Air NZ, there will be little of this

Apple13

Mmm but if the NZ government did not own Air NZ then small regional airports such as Timaru, Gisborne, New Plymouth, Whangarei, Taupo, Greymouth etc would have no service at all (admittedly it is not great, but at least there is something).
It is not just on total population but also on the way that the population is distributed and the geography of the country.