Air New Zealand Regional Flight Cuts and Rising Fuel Costs Will Not Impact Interline Agreement

Air New Zealand said the interline agreement is an exciting long term partnership, and the rising fuel costs and some regional flight cuts are short term sollutions.

Chief Transformation and Alliances Officer Michael Williams said the take off of the agreement on Tuesday has taken a lot of hard work. 

Alongside the simplification of the luggage and traveling provess, Williams said customers will now be more connected to the rest of the country. 

"New Zealand's actually a big place and Air New Zealand, our purpose is to make sure that we can connect New Zealanders with each other and I know that the team at Air Chatham has a similar purpose for their airline as well," he said. 

Following a succesful launch, William remains confident rising fuel costs will not dampen the agreement. 

"I think clearly it's a major issue that airlines around the world, and honestly not just airlines, we all feel it and sense it in some way."

"But let's hope that that's something that can be dealt with and at some stage in the next month there's a return to much more normal levels of fuel costs."

Williams belevies the fuel cost impact will be short term, and Air New Zealand is focused on the long term. 

"There's unfortunately these sorts of impacts from time to time, but we plan for the long term and this agreement we've got with Air Chatham is something definitely for the long term."

As jet fuel increases, Air New Zealand is assesing the situation daily and want to maintain connection accross Aotearoa, he said.  

"Typically fuel costs us about $85 USD per barrel ($146 NZD), which would mean that we're spending roughly, $4 million a day for jet fuel."

"And that US$85 a barrel is now, about $200 USD ($344 NZD) a barrel," he said. 

The rising costs have caused fare increases for both air lines and discussion on potential flight cuts. 

"We're trying to absorb as much of that as possible just to keep fares as low as possible, but again, no one really thought that we'd ever see $200 USD a barrel fuel costs," Williams said. 

While flight frequency between Whakatāne and Auckland is determined by Air Chathams, Williams said the agreement will not be impacted by Air New Zealands' flight consolidation through out March and April. 

"Air New Zealand's making our own decisions to a relatively small scale."

"Again, I see these as quite short term responses to this critical fuel situation that we face globally but long-term, I don't think that's going to have a big part to play."

Air Chathams CEO Duanne Emeny said he is excited for the potential to expand the agreement to other Air Chatham locations across the country and internationally too. 

Although there will be servela stepping stones first, Williams shares the sentiment. 

"I think it would be great to think about what we could do in the long term."

"I mean, wouldn't it be cool if we can connect New York with Whakatane?"

Disussions for international interline agreements are underway said Emeny.