Latest / Best of Business / Billie Moore: NZ Airports Association CEO says Air New Zealand needs regulation and pricing investigation

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Billie Moore: NZ Airports Association CEO says Air New Zealand needs regulation and pricing investigation · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: MB has launched a review of airport regulation, just three
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  Speaker 2: weeks after the Commerce Commission has given Auckland Airport the
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  Speaker 2: tick of approval for its big upgrade. Now the airport's
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  Speaker 2: association is upset that the scrutiny is on airports yet again,
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  Speaker 2: and not on any New Zealand. And the chief executive
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  Speaker 2: is Billy Moore. Hey, Billy, ay, why is it's very
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  Speaker 2: good to talk to you? Why is MB looking at
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  Speaker 2: airport regulation again?
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  Speaker 3: Look, we're not sure. We're pretty disillusioned about it. I
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  Speaker 3: think it was as as short as eleven days since
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  Speaker 3: the last review before we heard about this one. We
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  Speaker 3: looked at this a couple of years ago. With the
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  Speaker 3: Civil Aviation Act went through in twenty twenty three, we
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  Speaker 3: had an effectiveness to review a few years before that.
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  Speaker 3: It feels like rolling reviews where airports come out really well,
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  Speaker 3: and yet we continue to see a blind spot when
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  Speaker 3: it comes to the monopoly that most contents are experiencing
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  Speaker 3: in aviation, which is their New Zealand itself.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, And when I'm getting to the Air New Zealand
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  Speaker 2: thing with you in a tick because I am fascinated
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  Speaker 2: by that as well. But is this looking at something
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  Speaker 2: that is is this particular review looking at something that's
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  Speaker 2: been looked at before, or is it looking at something
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  Speaker 2: completely new.
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  Speaker 3: It's a little bit unclear. It's a very loose review.
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  Speaker 3: They're describing it as a check in on the system
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  Speaker 3: and whether it's working the way it should. We think
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  Speaker 3: the Commerce Commissioner has already exhausted that through the last
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  Speaker 3: review of Auckland the airport, which was probably the biggest
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  Speaker 3: test that it's had with the significant infrastructure investment that
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  Speaker 3: they've had. But they're looking at whether the system needs
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  Speaker 3: to be more flexible. We'll obviously submitted to that, like
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  Speaker 3: we always do, try to be constructive, but we are
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  Speaker 3: getting a little bit disillusioned with the fact that it's
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  Speaker 3: airports again. It seems like the safe place for the
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  Speaker 3: government rather than really looking at the overall system and
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  Speaker 3: what's affecting their FeAs.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, now, what do you want them to look at?
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  Speaker 2: This is the government. What do you want them to
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  Speaker 2: look at? Reair New Zealand.
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  Speaker 3: Look, we want to look at the domestic market. We
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  Speaker 3: can see that there is a lot of strain on
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  Speaker 3: the domestic market. It's in decline at this point. The
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  Speaker 3: health of the market is really really poor. We've lost
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  Speaker 3: one point five million seats out of the system since
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  Speaker 3: twenty nineteen, so in contrast with the rest of the world,
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  Speaker 3: our system is not growing. Aviation is going gangbusters offshore
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  Speaker 3: and we're not seeing that same growth in New Zealand.
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  Speaker 3: And part of that, a really significant part of that
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  Speaker 3: is because we have one operator, Air New Zealand's great.
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  Speaker 3: I work with them closely. They're excellent people, but they
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  Speaker 3: are one business and they've had some really bad luck.
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  Speaker 3: They also have eighty percent of their roots as monopoly
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  Speaker 3: roots in the regions and listeners will experience that when
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  Speaker 3: they're booking their flights every day. We need more competition
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  Speaker 3: in that system. Ultimately, that's what it fits airly is. Look,
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  Speaker 3: we can't force competition, but we have to deal with
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  Speaker 3: the consumer outcomes. If competition isn't possible, and that's essentially
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  Speaker 3: what Air New Zealand argues. They think that the population
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  Speaker 3: scale is too low for more competition. If more competition
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  Speaker 3: isn't possible, then regulation needs to follow. That's what we
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  Speaker 3: do with most other virtual monopolies like transpower, like Chorus.
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  Speaker 3: That's what happens. There's some kind of oversight the market
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  Speaker 3: power of those things. Yes, so there has to be
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  Speaker 3: some kind of action regardless of the decision you make
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  Speaker 3: about whether competition is possible or not.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, hey, Billy, thanks for talking us. I really appreciate it.
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  Speaker 2: Billy Moore, Chief executive of the Airport's Association.
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