\u201cThey\u2019ve got competitors internationally. We\u2019re just another one,\u201d said Cam Wallace, chief executive of Qantas International & Freight.<\/p>\n
New Auckland-Samoa and Gold Coast routes were announced a day after Qantas ran its first Auckland-Perth direct flight since 2018<\/a>.<\/p>\n Australian Government funding for the relevant border control and biosecurity departments at Perth was credited for making the Perth journey possible.<\/p>\n \u201cWe fly from Terminal 3 at our own terminal in Perth, and there was a kind of a pinch point of congestion for Border Force and the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries,\u201d Wallace said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo they needed to build out the area and they needed some more staff.\u201d<\/p>\n Wallace, formerly Air NZ chief revenue officer and Mediaworks chief executive, said Perth Airport and the relevant tourism board supported that build.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to announce those flights until those facilities were efficient, because it\u2019s just not a great customer experience for people having to queue and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Talk of subsidies or Government funding for aviation in New Zealand can be controversial.<\/p>\n Air New Zealand\u2019s new chief executive Nikhil Ravishankar<\/a> has complained of an uneven playing field.<\/p>\n \u201cMe and my 11,500 colleagues at Air New Zealand love competition,\u201d he told the Herald soon after taking over as CEO.<\/p>\n But Ravishankar said some competitors cherry-picked routes and were effectively given subsidies by airports to do so.<\/p>\n He said that created a \u201cweird distortion where regional customers end up subsidising somebody else\u2019s air travel\u201d.<\/p>\n The New Zealand Government has shown little appetite to fund regional routes, beyond $30 million in loans<\/a> from the Regional Infrastructure Fund announced in September.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really for the Government to decide what they want to do in terms of the influence,\u201d Wallace said.<\/p>\n \u201cOne thing I would say is, Air New Zealand have an amazing market position in New Zealand, one of the strongest anywhere in the world,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re focused on our business, growing in New Zealand, providing customers with choice and competition, and this is a market that doesn\u2019t have a huge amount of that.\u201d <\/p>\n The rivalry might intensify next year. <\/p>\n Qantas subsidiary Jetstar in September launched its biggest-ever New Zealand and transtasman expansion<\/a>.<\/p>\n But Air NZ is boosting capacity on some domestic routes from March, especially Christchurch to Hamilton and Auckland to Queenstown.<\/p>\n Next stop, USA<\/p>\n The new Auckland lounge is designed for long-haul and transit customers, with various artistic nods as well as practical facilities<\/a> for such travellers.<\/p>\n Just as Auckland is now a linchpin in China-South America services<\/a>, it is a stepping stone for Perth and Adelaide denizens travelling to the United States eastern seaboard<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll have a lot of transit customers, I suspect, for, Auckland-JFK<\/a>,\u201d Wallace said.<\/p>\n The airline\u2019s friends in the oneworld alliance will also be influential.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got a joint venture partnership here with American Airlines<\/a>. They travel to LA and Dallas, and Emirates as well to Dubai.\u201d<\/p>\n The alliance played its part when for eight months during the Auckland lounge rebuild, the nearby Emirates lounge hosted the Aussie airline\u2019s passengers.<\/p>\n And at the refurbished lounge, there should be many guests from late next year connecting to Apia, the capital of Samoa.<\/p>\n \u201cWe see an opportunity there. There\u2019s a strong demand profile,\u201d Wallace said.<\/p>\n That will be mostly outbound leisure travellers, and New Zealand residents visiting their Samoan family and friends, he said.<\/p>\n Wallace said Qantas felt Samoa had potential.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s probably an under-served outbound leisure destination, and we think that market can be stimulated through competition and choice.\u201d<\/p>\n Resurrected routes<\/p>\n Some new routes on Qantas out of Auckland are in fact revived routes. <\/p>\n The Perth service had an almost eight-year absence, and the Adelaide service was ditched in 2007 before its resurrection in October<\/a>.<\/p>\n Wallace said these revivals were partly a by-product of the airline\u2019s fleet renewal.<\/p>\n Key to that was the Airbus A321XLR<\/a>, a large narrowbody twinjet which Qantas started taking flight bookings for on September 12.<\/p>\n \u201cAs the XLRs start coming into the fleet, it\u2019s providing us more flexibility with our other narrowbodies,\u201d Wallace said.<\/p>\n That part of the fleet includes dozens of Boeing 737s.<\/p>\n And on Friday, Qantas welcomed back its 10th and final giant A380 double-decker quadjet after nearly six years in storage. <\/p>\n Covid-19 and its aftermath were not kind to many airlines, with border closures, layoffs, and then supply chain logjams or engine issues<\/a> hobbling recoveries.<\/p>\n \u201cAll airlines around the world have had challenges, whether it\u2019s engines or slowness of aircraft coming into the fleet,\u201d Wallace said.<\/p>\n \u201cFor us, we\u2019ve got seven A320s, but our initial order book would have meant we had a lot more. We\u2019ve got two XLRs, but we would have liked to have a lot more.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, like all airlines, we have been constrained by the supply chain,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s starting to loosen up for us now, which is providing us more flexibility to be able to open up new markets, drive for growth, and target new opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n