Latest / Best of Business / Duane Emeny: Air Chathams CEO on the Government's funding push for small airlines

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Duane Emeny: Air Chathams CEO on the Government's funding push for small airlines · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from news talks'd be follow
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  Speaker 2: Nine two nine two is the text number. Standard text
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  Speaker 2: fees applyed go on, tell me how wrong I am.
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  Speaker 2: I'm happy to hear it. Now. The government stepped in
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  Speaker 2: to help small airlines. Shane Jones has given three thirty
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  Speaker 2: million dollars in government loans or at least they're on
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  Speaker 2: the table to help keep the regional routes running. Cabinet's
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  Speaker 2: also back the integration of booking systems so that regional
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  Speaker 2: carriers show up when you're booking through big carriers like Auckland. Sorry,
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  Speaker 2: like a New Zealand has made. Dwayne Emoni is the
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  Speaker 2: CEO of Air Chathams And with us. Now, Hi Dwayne,
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  Speaker 2: how good is that booking thing?
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  Speaker 1: Though? Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: Really good, really good. I think that's a key piece
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  Speaker 3: and we're actually a little way down the track on
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  Speaker 3: that one already with ANYW Zealand. So we're looking to
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  Speaker 3: hopefully roll out a domestic trial later this year. But
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  Speaker 3: it's expensive, I can tell you having gone through it,
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  Speaker 3: so any support that we can get for that's greatly appreciated.
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  Speaker 2: Because do you have to pay for it, like I mean,
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  Speaker 2: if you but I'm shocked that we don't do this already.
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  Speaker 2: You book anywhere else in the world, you get this.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you can go from Auckland to wherever you
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  Speaker 2: need to go in the country all in one ticket.
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  Speaker 2: Why doesn't it? Why don't we do it?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a good question. There are ways of doing it,
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  Speaker 3: I guess through the likes of global distribution systems. But
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  Speaker 3: again the airline has to be proactive and make that
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  Speaker 3: investment themselves to be linked into those systems, and some
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  Speaker 3: of the really smaller carriers you just can't justify it
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  Speaker 3: because these costs are quite significant just to be a
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  Speaker 3: part of the system. So I think the fact that
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  Speaker 3: governments picked U up and said, well, you know, how
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  Speaker 3: do we make these regional roots more viable, Well, the
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  Speaker 3: best way to do that is to effectively partner them
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  Speaker 3: with a much bigger airline that everyone knows about, and
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  Speaker 3: then it just becomes part of their network. And then
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  Speaker 3: you have the inter deals between the airlines in terms
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  Speaker 3: of how the fares get broken down and who gets what.
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  Speaker 3: But the key is the customer gets to go from
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  Speaker 3: point A through point B to point C. Seamlessly and
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  Speaker 3: have that full ticket protection the whole way through. So yeah,
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  Speaker 3: it's definitely a good thing totally.
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  Speaker 2: Now what about this thirty million dollars in loans? Is
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  Speaker 2: this helpful? Is this what you guys are struggling with,
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  Speaker 2: is getting money?
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  Speaker 3: I think we need to make sure that it's helpful. So,
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  Speaker 3: you know, this is something that's been lobbied on quite
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  Speaker 3: a bit in the last couple of years, and you know,
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  Speaker 3: I think the announcements are really positive. One. We've spent
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  Speaker 3: the last number of months complaining about how tough everything
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  Speaker 3: is and how we're not getting any help. So today
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  Speaker 3: we're getting some help. So I think we need to
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  Speaker 3: as small carriers make the most of that. It's not
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  Speaker 3: going to do everything, but it's definitely better than nothing.
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  Speaker 1: Brilliant.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, listen, Thank you so much, mate, look after yourself
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  Speaker 2: and best of luck with the business that is. Dwayne mny,
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  Speaker 2: the CEO of Air chatterms
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