Are Kiwis budget airline snobs?
As the global march of low-cost carriers moves on, here in New Zealand no-frills aviation hasn’t taken full flight yet.
Stop! Drop everything! What do you mean you can’t remember your credit card digits? Too late, those cut-price flights have now tripled – blast your quivering fingers. The US$65 ($90) one-way, loss-leading airfares from the UK to the east coast of the United States were of little consequence for most New Zealanders, except to mark another milestone of expansion for the world’s low-cost carriers (LCCs). The airline, Norwegian Air Shuttle, has moved aggressively to nab passengers from flag carriers such as British Airways and budget rivals like EasyJet.
But why does this matter, in little old NZ? In the volatile airline industry, global trends matter. And the trend is from low-frills to no-frills. Norwegian’s introductory sub-$100 airfares are significant because they’re for transAtlantic routes from smaller UK cities and will fly new 189-seat Boeing 737-Max aircraft. These cities have populations half that of Auckland and will be linking up with smaller US east coast destinations, rather than behemoths like New York, so its success in selling cramped economy class seats is of passing interest to airlines outside of that market.
Not that our lot haven’t tried. Air NZ moved to user-pays on short-haul routes yonks ago, but anything over a hop hasn’t worked. Jetstar ditched flying Auckland to Singapore as soon as Air NZ and Singapore Airlines announced a partnership on the route in 2014, while Air Asia deserted its Christchurch to Kuala Lumpur route – even with a subsidy – in 2012.
Are Kiwis not yet ready for mediumor long-haul flights where we don’t get space, free meals and baggage? Does our loyalty to the ‘‘national airline’’ mean we are unlikely to see a budget airline test the long-haul waters again? In short: Are we snobs when it comes to flying on a user-pays basis?
One of my rights of passage as a UKbased Kiwi was to develop a love-hate relationship with Ryanair and its budget rivals: the slog to a far-off airport at 3am, the constant up-selling, strict baggage checks, lining up to get Ryanair’s mandatory ‘‘visa stamp’’ (they act as border control too). Ryanair can claim to be Europe’s biggest airline. Not only that, they’ve dragged down consumer expectations, with incumbent BA scrapping free checked luggage and, recently, snacks and drinks: sound familiar?
Back home, despite all of our domestic flights being two hours at most, it seems most prefer our national airline. Whether it’s slick marketing and loyalty from Air New Zealand passengers or a poorservice and punctuality hangover knee-capping Jetstar, the end product is largely the same – low-frills vs no-frills – yet the end financial results for the competing airlines are different. Jetstar has played a long game in NZ but only in 2015 was the Kiwi subsidiary (finally) ‘‘contributing to group profit’’ at Qantas.
Although Jetstar competition has been welcome in the regions, New Zealand’s somewhat frosty reception to anything more than a short flight with a budget airline means Jetstar isn’t in a hurry to mirror its successful Aussie-based long-haul flights to Asia from the Auckland market.
However, Brendan Sobie from Capa – Centre for Aviation says former players may eventually test New Zealand routes again. The most obvious choice of LCC expansion is Air Asia going direct from Auckland to Kuala Lumpur without its one-hour pitstop on the Gold Coast – if it manages to get bums on seats. Early estimates from Air Asia indicated as much as 80 per cent of demand on the route came from the Malaysian end, so it isn’t Kiwi travellers who are the foundation of the budget carrier’s expansion Downunder and, with our track record of supporting budget airlines, nor will we be the reason it stays or goes.
It isn't Kiwi travellers who are the foundation of [Air Asia's] expansion Downunder and ... nor will we be the reason if stays or goes. it
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