Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / James Meager: Associate Transport Minister on the jet fuel situation. Jetstar cutting NZ flights

Transcript

James Meager: Associate Transport Minister on the jet fuel situation. Jetstar cutting NZ flights · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Jets start cutting twelve percent of its flights or con
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Christ j Chen Wellington's and trans tasmin affected as well.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: We have just over twenty days of jet fuel left
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: more shipments on the way. We've told James Meaga, Associate
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Transport Minister Minister, good morning morning, right, So Jetstar won't
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: be the last to do this, will day Well, I.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Are not the first either. So airlines have responded to
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: the spock in fuel price and jet fuel price by
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: irrationalizing some of their roots and trying to reduce some
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: of their costs as well. So start doing what I
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: think a lot of normal people are doing, which is
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: looking at the price of doing business and just trying
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: to make sure that they can maintain their own viability.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: When you talk about the jet fuel stocks, so twenty days,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: that's how much is in country. How certain are we
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: have what's to come after it?
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Are pretty certain. So I think the latest figures out
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: from NBR that these forty three days are either on
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: shore or on way, and we've had no indications that
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: will drop significantly over the next week. While we've got
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: I think indications of a couple of tankers on route,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: and I know that there was one in tim report
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: yesterday loading to help fill up those stocks. So we're
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: pretty confident that we've got the levels that are within
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: the normal range, but we are keeping an eye on it.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: What is the normal range? Are we even close to
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: off the normal range right now? In terms of Ford orders,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Normally we look.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: At about fifty days, and so we have seen that
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: come back a little bit, so we're at about forty
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: three at the moment. But there's nothing to indicate that
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: the orders that we have had placed around the world
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: aren't on the way. We haven't had any signs of disruption,
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: but again officials in the NBA are keeping an eye
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: on that and reporting those numbers you've read a couple
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: of days. I'm trying to be as transferent about those
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: numbers as possible as well.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: If you have to ration jet fuel, who gets it first.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Well, there's been the situation before a couple of times.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: I think the aviation industry, amongst most industries, are actually experienced,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: as there was the fuel issue back in twenty seventeen.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: And then we of course we're COVID and so those
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: decisions are still to be made by ministers and it'll
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: be a discussion that's had by industry, and I think
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: industry understands the challenge at hand and they are just
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: I think, wanting to be part of that decision and
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: to be able to input into what's the best way
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: to around a cape.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: So at this point, you haven't made any decisions about
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: who's what the pecking order is.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: No, and I don't think we're at that point yet.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: If you look at other countries around the world, they're
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: in a similar situation where there's still a sufficient supply
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: around the world. Now, obviously that's something that everyone's keeping
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: an eye on, and when it comes to the point
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: where it looks like it's tightening up, we will have
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: to make decisions. But we're not at that point yet,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: but we will be led by industry as to how
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: they think the best way The other cap would be.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Minister, if I'm looking at flying or my family's looking
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: at flying in the next couple of months, how much
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: extra I mean, if you had advice from officials, and
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: how much extra their price increases going to be.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: No, no specifics because it will just depend on how
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: the conflict unfolds. We know that airlines are doing a
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: couple of things. One is that they're putting specific surcharges
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: to cover the price of fuel. The other thing is
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: that they are baking it into the price of their tickets,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: so it is difficult to tell. I mean, for airlines,
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: I think they would admit that there's only so much
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: that they can charge before it will damp and demand
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: and people will just choose other alternatives to get around.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: And we understand that's tough, and that's why we've put
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: out this targeted cost of living payment to support low
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: middle income working families. But at this point there's no
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: real way to tell what the specific price increases might
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: or might not be.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Are you ware of any other cuts coming?
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: No, I'm not really any other cuts coming.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: What about the CIA fees and the regional air loans.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: I spoke to ear Chathams a couple of weeks ago.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: They hadn't got a send of it yet. Are you
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: looking at fast tracking any of that money or cutting
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: any of the fees?
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: That wouldn't be my preferred option. We had that situation
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: during COVID where CIA levies were suppressed or held low
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: for quite a while. What that does is that eats
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: into the base of all the revenue of the regulator,
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: and we still have to actually fund that regulator in
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: order to keep a safe aviation system. And you see
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: what happens in a couple of years down the track.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Those levees have to be restored and the price is
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: spike and that puts more pressure on regional airlines. So
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: our preference at this stage is to look at the
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Regional Connectivity Fund. We've got thirty million dollar fund, make
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: some decisions around allocating that to the airlines who have applied,
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: including chatams, and see if we can stabilize the regional
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: airline sector by providing them a bit of direct relief.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: That way, all right, go well, James, thank you, James,
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  Speaker 1: Mega Associate Transport.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Listen live to News Talks it be from five am weekdays,
• 4:54
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