Pacific Blue are offering prospects for flights into many more destinations in Australia, provided state or federal governments pick up the costs for border control and security services at the airports that don’t currently have those services.
New flight routes between Wellington and Canberra are already being considered, as it changes its business to adapt to the current market and beings competing with the traditional carriers in the business sector instead of focusing solely on the leisure market.
While addressing a Wellington business audience in New Zealand, Adrian Hamilton Manns, Pacific Blue’s Commercial General Manager, said that liberalization of travel regulations over the Tasman will lower airfares but not necessarily add additional routes. He noted that for every $100 in revenue they collect in airfares, approximately $35 goes to governments for border, aviation and immigration security and the like.
He continued saying that if Pacific Blue can find a way to overcome the stumbling blocks in cost structures domestically, that they would consider introducing a Brazilian manufactured 100 seat Embaerer 190 aircraft to fly daily services out of New Zealand into Australian destinations such as Adelaide, Darwin, Broome, Hobart, Launceston, Proserpine and Port Macquarie and Melbourne Airport.
[Source: http://www.nbr.co.nz]