Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Billie Moore: NZ Airports Association CEO on the potential closure of its Westport-Wellington service

Transcript

Billie Moore: NZ Airports Association CEO on the potential closure of its Westport-Wellington service · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Trouble on the tarmac for the coast less than eighteen
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: months in Origin there could be acting its Westport to
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Wellington route. It's a bid for the government support that
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: looks like it's dead in the water. In New Zealand
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Airport's CEO Billy Moore with us this morning. Hey Billy, Hi,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: what's going on here?
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Oh? Look, it's it's a tricky situation. Originea has been
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: clear they'll keep monitoring the route until mid May. It
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: has to work commercially for them and we have to
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: respect that. The difficulty we see in the regions to
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: the place like Westport is that the demand for the
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: route is there, but it has to also be matched
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: by the frequency and timing of services. So passenger numbers
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: will depend on it having enough like frequency to make
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: it practical I say commuters, and if you can't get
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: that scale up, the overall financial sustainability of the route
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: is harder to maintain. So it's a bit of a
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: chicken and egg situation with the timing of the routes,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: of frequency and getting those numbers up to Origin. That's
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: what the council will be grappling with. How do you
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: give it a jolt so it can become something sustainable.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: This is your classic regional airligned problem.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Isn't it. It really is, and in a lot of
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: countries around the world, there are processes to provide a
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: bit of that baseline support and get it moving so
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: that it becomes more sustainable over time. The clincher in
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: this case is that we support is also a joint
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: need to airport. That means it's one of the last
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: remaining airports around the country five of them that is
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: also co owned by the taxpayer. So taxpayers will already
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: cover half of the airport short for each year just
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: to keep essential airport services open, so things like emergencies, healthcare, ambulance.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: So the question for us is how do we make
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: sure that public contribution that will continue anyway, is also
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: supporting a passenger route to make the actual public good
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: of that money worthwhile. So we definitely need to find
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: solution here.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: One thing I've noticed, I've lot of friends who are
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: increasingly using regional airlines to get to places like Auckland
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: to Ketty Ketty with who does that one barrier barrier
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Auckland to part up at our mood that's Chatham Air.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: They're great airlines and they often have you know, good times.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: They often have a flat fear structure, so it's a
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: lot more affordable than you know, your price gounging Air
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: New Zealand, et cetera. Is that how do you get
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: those airlines onto the search engines, because that's one of
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: the problems I reckon you find when you do a
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: search through an international that they don't pop up. You
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: just get jet Star and Air New Zealand.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: Look, you're absolutely right to putting that out. It's something
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: we've been talking to the government about these airlines. You know,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: they are great operations, but they are small in scale,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: so it is tough for some of them to invest
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: in the systems that allow them to be in those
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: search engines and some of the other capabilities that we
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: see from the big airlines. Ear chatam So does have
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: that capability, but we think there is some more things
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: we can do to make sure their great offerings are
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: exposed to more and more people. Say, as you say,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: once you start flying on them, you do tend to
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: stick because it is a great.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Service one hundred percent. Billy, appreciate your time this morning.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Billy Moore, who's New Zealand airport's CEO. For more from
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, Listen live to news talks.
• 3:21
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• 3:24
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