“There’s real room for New Zealand to be more strategic about how it looks at trade deals,” New Zealand Airports Association chief executive Billie Moore said.
“Aviation links can reinforce these processes but also benefit from them. The big message from us is: it is really competitive out there.”
She said New Zealand was not operating at the level of some other nations in attracting investment and developing hubs for aviation.
But she said the China Eastern service to Buenos Aires was a success.
“This is capturing an idea that New Zealand could be a strategic hub from Asia through to South America.
“It makes absolute sense to think about how that fits in with our trade aspirations with that part of the world, such a significant part of the world.”
Brazil has a population of more than 210 million, is a multiparty democracy, and has Latin America’s biggest economy.
Brazil stood out as the country where an approach involving aviation and trade made sense for New Zealand, Moore said.
“But we also have to be quite upfront that to make these things make sense for airlines is a lot of hard work, particularly for New Zealand. We are a small market.
“How do we make everything line up to make the decision easier to deploy aircraft to New Zealand?
“Airports work very hard to make New Zealand attractive, but there’s more that we could do alongside Government to show it’s a real open door for these kinds of initiatives, which can then make what the Government’s trying to achieve move that much faster.”
She said that, outside the markets Luxon and McClay mentioned, getting direct flights to India was still a priority.
And capacity to Southeast Asia was still not at pre-Covid levels.
“We’ve got to be in to win because everyone’s gunning for it. Our competitors are places like Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane.”
Despite that competition, the Brisbane 2032 Olympics could also generate more interest in New Zealand as a destination, she said.
Luxon was asked about air links yesterday.
He said formal negotiations had not yet started with any of the markets outlined as priorities.
Air connectivity was useful but not a prerequisite for making trade deals.
He cited the recent India free-trade deal as an example of that.
“Most of our Indian traffic really comes through Hong Kong or through Singapore down into New Zealand rather than direct.”
Luxon said the Government hoped to get a direct air link with India soon.
Air New Zealand said it was listening to customer feedback and evaluating its network to determine the best routes.
At this stage, it had no plans to introduce services to Brazil or the other markets mentioned.
Any new routes would need “strong, sustainable demand in both directions, including inbound tourism to New Zealand”.
Argentina and Uruguay
The major cities of both these South American countries are in range of widebody aircraft, but Buenos Aires, by far the biggest market, already has a direct flight to Auckland.
Closer to the continent’s Pacific coast, Santiago in Chile already has direct flights to Auckland.
Bangladesh
The South Asian country has only a small expat population in New Zealand, estimated at 3500 in the census three years ago.
Its major airport is Hazrat Shahjalal International in Dhaka, well within reach of numerous widebody aircraft from New Zealand, and much closer to Auckland than Dubai is.
But Bangladesh had a GDP per capita of only US$2597 ($4559) last year, according to the World Bank.
Brazil
Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Photo / Tercio Teixeira, AFP
New Zealand and Brazil have growing people-to-people links, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said, and a bilateral visa waiver agreement.
Brazilians comprised about a third of all Latin American students and tourists in New Zealand, the ministry said.
The 2023 census recorded 9200 Brazilians living in New Zealand. But the Brazil Working Holiday Scheme also exists, and lets people from the country aged 18-30 live and work in New Zealand for up to one year.
Nigeria
Nigeria’s financial capital, Lagos, is within range of some ultra-long-haul aircraft such as special Airbus A350 variants.
Lagos has an estimated population of at least 21 million but Nigeria last year had a GDP per capita of just US$1224, according to the World Bank.
Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland
The Efta nations are more prosperous than the others, but likely to be too far away for direct, commercially viable flights any time soon.
The airport in Switzerland’s financial capital, Zurich, might conceivably be in reach of an Airbus A350-1000ULR in exceptional circumstances.
But it would have to manage a journey probably even longer than the Qantas Project Sunrise routes.
And those routes will connect a much bigger home market in Sydney to much bigger destinations in London and New York.
John Weekes is a business journalist covering aviation. He previously covered consumer affairs, crime, politics and courts.
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