Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Ryan Bridge: Flying will always be expensive in regional NZ

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Ryan Bridge: Flying will always be expensive in regional NZ · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Here we go again with the winging about Air New
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Zealand's prices. And I get it. I try and book
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the same flights as everybody else. And when you're trying
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: to fly from some obscure route, you know, from this
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: province to that province, stuff gets expensive really quickly. But
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: here we go again with politicians telling us FIBs, telling
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: us they can wave a magic wand and fix things.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: This time it's James Megha from National going into bat
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: for the South Island. Can't blame the guy flying. Shouldn't
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: just be for the rich who says we're going to
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: take action talking about underwriting airlines. Do we really want
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: the government underwriting the purchase of turboprop planes? Really when
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: we already own Air New Zealand. We've heard this all before,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: of course, the banks, the supermarkets, the price of petrol,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: you name it. I can't tell you how many painstaking,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: frustrating interviews I have done with ministers of all colors
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: and stripes, to be fair, who swear black and blue
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: they'll sort it out and then they don't. What's worse
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: the person that punches you in the nose or the
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: doctor that says they'll fix it when they know they can't,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: and you just left with a bent nose and no hope.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Here's the thing. If you want to book the main
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: trunk line, it is relatively inexpensive to do so, providing
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: you're not booking last minute. There's Jetstar keeping Air New
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Zealand on us. That's competition. But if you're flying Kenny
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Kenny to Dunedin tomorrow, guess what it'll cost you? A
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: billion dollars? Why? Because they're basically got you over a barrel,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: haven't they You need to fly? It's short notice. Business
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: customers normally booked these flights. Eight thousand people live in
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  Speaker 1: Ketty Kenny, one hundred and thirty thousand in Dunedin. Tourism
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: is seasonal, these routes are often empty. Air New Zealand
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: has major aircraft engine issues. The fact is running a
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: profitable airline in a sparsely populated country is bloody difficult,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: and we want them to be profitable. Otherwise we have
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: no airline and then we're a backwater banana republic and
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the regional players they're not doing too well either. Ere
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Chathams the other week, remember this, threatening to pull out
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: of Fakatana unless the council paid for a new Cessna.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Everyone compares us to the Ossies, but have a look
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: at outback Queensland. You pay thousands just to get to Brisbane.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Show me a headline about flights being cheaper from Dunedin
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: to Bali than Dunedin to Auckland, and I'll show you
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: one about Mount Isa to Brisbane and Brisbane to Canada.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Population matters, and guess what, We're a blip on the radar.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: And as for that promise from a politician that they'll
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: swoop in and save the day, about as reliable as
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: the playing schedule itself. For more from Early Edition with
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks. It'd be from
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.