Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Chami Abeysinghe: Great South CEO on the removal of the direct flight between Wellington and Invercargill

Transcript

Chami Abeysinghe: Great South CEO on the removal of the direct flight between Wellington and Invercargill · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You might have seen this in New Zealand's pulling out
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: of in the Cargo Wellington route. This is happening in January.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: They say that the decision came down to engine issues
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: and softening of demand. Domestically, customers can still go to
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: in Vicargo from Wellington, but you've got to go via
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: christ Church. Chemmy abasing it here is with us this
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: morning from the Great South, which is the tourism agency
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: down there. Thank you for being with me. Is this
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: a big loss the Wellington route?
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Definitely is. We're very disappointed. We've worked really hard as
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: a region to establish where we are at this point
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: in time. Economic development's been really good, the growth has
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: been really good. Tourism is almost back to pre COVID
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: levels and one of the key factors behind this is
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: our accessibility. And you know, the direct flights from the
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: main centers from Auckland and in Auckland, Wellington and christ Church.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: So losing a direct route between in the Caago and
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Wellington is extremely disappointing for us.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Do you know how many tourists or how much it
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: might cost your region?
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: No, we haven't really done that sort of modeling, but
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: you know, like I mean as a New Zealand said,
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: you can still come to us via christ Church, and
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: they're proposing that they will have additional flights put on
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: for us to and from christ Church, so that you
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: know there is still those opportunities. I don't know. We
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: haven't been informed of what those routes and those additional
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: flights are like yet.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Is the Auckland route in any doubt? Have you asked
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: in New Zealand about that?
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, they have guaranteed that it isn't the whole reason
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: they've gone to this particular flight. I think one of
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: the reasons is also about our experts going from in
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: the cargo. We've got the jet service via Auckland, and
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: of course we've got opportunities to connect to the international
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: world via christ Church. So those two routes are secure.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: The loadings they say to Wellington is also they're also full.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: I mean, the flights are fall Anybody who's been on
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: that flight will know that there's hardly a fair seed.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: But that's good that they've guaranteed it. Yeah, Jimmy, thank
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: you very much for your time this wanting really appreciate it. Jemmy,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: I was singing joining us from Great South she's the
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: chief executive of the Economic Development Agency down there. It
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: is It is annoying, isn't it. When you go to
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: book a flight and they say, oh, you're going to
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: go via christ Church. It just changes the game. You're
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: not going to go down for the day, which is
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: kind of what I was looking at doing and a
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: while ago for work. It just becomes a whole multi
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: day thing, doesn't it. So it is a bit of
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: a game changer, though thankfully the Auckland one seems to
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: be guaranteed for more from news talks, there'd be listen
• 2:58
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• 3:01
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