Airport welcome to China Airlines
Taiwan’s China Airlines new Taipei to Christchurch via Melbourne summer service, adding an extra 40,000 seats, should reduce trans-Tasman flight costs.
Christchurch Airport on Thursday welcomed the extra service saying it complemented the Taiwanese airline’s existing service from Taipei via Sydney.
Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism boss Tim Hunter said the extra seats would help toward cheaper ticket prices and showed that flights from new destinations such as Taiwan could bring in tourists that would not have otherwise arrived.
Christchurch airport has also recently highlighted other summer flights, including from Singapore Airlines, saying the services are worth tens of millions to the region. Other airlines that have offered ‘‘seasonal services’’ into the Garden City include Air New Zealand, Virgin, and Qantas.
Hunter said trans-Tasman flights, particularly those between Melbourne and Christchurch, were still well below pre 2010-2011 earthquake levels. Airlines reduced the number of seats into Christchurch after the quakes.
On the Melbourne route, for example, until now there had only been Air New Zealand and Jetstar flying. The extra competition should reduce travel costs. ‘‘Having three carriers there will be really positive in terms of, it’ll bring prices down.
‘‘And [existing] fares into Christchurch are high. Load factors last summer were horrendously high, up over 90 per cent, which means on most days of the week there aren’t any seats left.’’
A survey of Australian tourists visiting Christchurch city over the summer showed that more than 20 per cent arrived via an international flight coming into another New Zealand city.
The addition of China Airline’s new service increases flights per week between Taipei and Christ- church to six for a 22 week summer season – three per week via Sydney and three per week via Melbourne.
China Airlines chairman Huang-Hsiang Sun, said last summer’s service via Sydney was the airline’s best performing service on its network at the time.
‘‘Last summer’s Taipei – Sydney – Christchurch service saw such high demand that we know offering more services for a longer time, through two Australian cities, will be well received,’’ he said.
‘‘The South Island is in very high demand as a travel destination for people from Taiwan and Asia, but we also know many other travellers used the trans-Tasman service last summer and expect more to do so next summer.’’
Justin Watson, chief aeronautical commercial officer at Christchurch Airport, said the new service would offer 40,000 new international seats between Melbourne and Christchurch.
‘‘This new service is a significant vote of confidence from one of the world’s leading airlines,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s great to see international carriers growing their support of the South Island with increased wide body air services – this is the first such service between Melbourne and Christchurch in more than a decade.’’
The extra summer services would create significant new passenger and freight opportunities and drive regional economic development within the South Island, Watson said.
Christchurch Airport, led by chief executive Malcolm Johns, takes the approach of encouraging summer or peak tourism season services, with the hope of turning them into year round services.
Watson said the airport was committed to deepening partnerships with major international carriers to ensure the South Island is well connected internationally.
China Airlines already flies into Auckland from Sydney and Brisbane.