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Ryan Bridge: Why ComCom's not investigating Air New Zealand · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So after all of the hand ringing, the complaints, the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: stomping of feet, the Comcom's shooting down, talk of a
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: probe and to domestic airfares, Foreign and Co Will of
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: course see this as a vindication, a validation that despite
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the headlines and consumer and z's, the market has broken claim.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: In fact, the reality is their costs have gone up,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: and surprise, surprise, it's expensive to run routes with high
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: fixed costs to small places with more sheep than people.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: So they conclude doing a market study, which is easy politics.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: It scratches the itch, won't actually achieve anything, and by
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: that they mean it won't lead to consumers getting a
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: better deal. Refreshing honesty. Could the same refreshing honesty have
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: been applied to the claims about banking and supermarkets and
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: petrol stations, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. The list
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: goes on, Like most things post COVID, costs have gone up,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: airport landing charges up, air traffic control up, security levees up.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: And when you're in business and you own we own
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: this one, remember fifty one percent of it. You recoup
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: those costs by putting your own prices up. We don't
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: want them subsidizing flights and crashing our business, right, the
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: business we own. We sold off the National carrier in
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine. We renationalized in two thousand and one
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: after Anset went bus that cost us close to a
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: billion bucks. Ansets problem was high costs and regulation changes
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: when airlines failure gets expensive for tax payers. Now, I
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: don't want to defend an airline charging me four hundred
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: dollars to fly for forty minutes any more than the
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: next guy. But and this is the crux of most
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: of the complaints we hear through the media. Short flights,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: regional flights are expensive to run, and people don't use
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: them often enough. They use more fuel as a proportion
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: of a total flight because of the takeoff and the climb.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Takes a bit of gas to lift us into the sky,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: especially now we're getting so fat. The cost of fuel
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: is a third of the operating costs for Air New Zealand,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: something foreign can't control. That's more the purview of a
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Poutin or a Sultan. Planes spend way too long sitting
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: on the ground. Your costs are higher, and you've got
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: fewer passengers to spread those costs over on the smaller
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: routes using jets, of course, that would be more efficient,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: but again we don't have the people to fill them,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: which is why I said the other day and it's true,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: but doesn't make it palatable. We're a small country. We
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: pay a price for sparsely populated, beautiful, untouched landscapes. The
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: ComCom does say there's room for improvement, but on the
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: whole the real enemy here is the politician or the
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: talking head who tells us by simply bashing Air New
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Zealand's head into the wall, they can make Kiwis fly
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: on the cheap. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: listen live to News Talk Set B from five am weekdays,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.