Pacific Blue, the offshore arm of Australia's Virgin Blue, says it will launch New Zealand domestic flights before year's end, but New Zealand's own airlines remain sceptical.
Tony Marks, Pacific Blue's chief executive, says aircraft availability and Auckland terminal access are the only unresolved issues before flights can start.
Ralph Norris, Air New Zealand's managing director, believes that his carrier's Express Class revamp has left little room for another airline. ANZ controls about 77% of the domestic market.
Norris says this market already has excess capacity. Domestic load factors on ANZ are over 70%, with local flights operated by Jet Connect, the Qantas New Zealand subsidiary, in the 60% region.
Origin Pacific, New Zealand's other airline, predicts Pacific Blue will instead join it in an interline agreement. Origin has already signed similar deals with seven other foreign carriers since Qantas ended its codeshare with Origin in March. Origin suspects any Pacific Blue domestic operations will be limited to infrequent, one-way flights repositioning an aircraft from say Auckland to Christchurch before it returns to Australia.
Origin Pacific and Pacific Blue have been discussing an interline agreement. Virgin Blue has a similar deal with Australia's Regional Express on routes too small for a Boeing 737.
Source: Airline Business
