Editorial: Air New Zealand deserves heat over price of flying

OPINION: Most frequent air-travellers will have long since resigned themselves to the knowledge that the closer to the travel date they leave making their bookings, the worse the pain is going to be in the pocket.

After all, Air New Zealand says that is how it must be, with its pricing model rewarding those who get in early and punishing those who are tardy – or don't have the choice. Clearly it suits the airline to run its business that way, but the question needs to be asked whether it is getting out of step with its customers – a largely captive market, it must be remembered.

A report in Saturday's paper highlighted what has been a perennial concern across provincial New Zealand – the outrageous price of travelling a short distance on an Air New Zealand service – but which anecdotal evidence suggests has been getting worse. While many Nelsonians may shrug their shoulders about the feeling that somehow, someone is gouging them, those who feel there are grounds to protest need to be listened to.

The suspicion is that Air New Zealand has cut the number of discounted fares it offers. One traveller has been told the recession is to blame, with services reduced as demand fell last year, meaning fewer seats at all price points. An airline spokesman partly confirmed that, but claimed that the majority of available fares in and out of Nelson are "smart saver" ones, and said that if people wanted more cheap fares they needed to fly more often.

Of all provincial centres, Nelson has about the most at stake from the price of air travel. It has the busiest regional airport with hundreds of thousands of passengers passing through it each year. Air New Zealand must be hoovering tens of millions of dollars out of the region. The travelling public has every right to demand accountability and to cry foul when it feels like it is being taken advantage of.

Airline behaviour always feeds conspiracy theories, stoked by the obsessive secrecy in the name of commercial sensitivity. But history suggests that when they need to be, airlines can be swift and nimble in cutting prices to drive demand or counter competition. That knowledge makes many travellers cynical when the airline then cries poor, or pushes the blame back on to its customers for not booking early enough, or flying often enough.

Still, Air New Zealand does give the strong sense these days of being significantly preoccupied with public relations and protecting its "brand", which leads to the clear conclusion that the more fuss about unreasonable pricing practices the better.

Obviously, the airline cannot please everybody. Obviously, early-booking discounts suit many travellers. But most later-booked travel surely isn't on a whim, but out of urgent necessity. That a pricing mechanism can so blatantly exploit that is always going to feed ill-feeling.

At the very least, given the possibility that the airline has been tightening up its rationing of cheaper airfares out of Nelson, the complaints need to continue. Harrying it to try harder is probably the best hope.

- © Fairfax NZ News