Golden age brings world Down Under
The past 12 months have been the best time ever to be a traveller, Air New Zealand boss Christopher Luxon claimed earlier this year.
The formula behind this ‘‘golden age’’ of travel was pretty simple: more airlines flying to and from New Zealand has increased competition which has lowered ticket prices.
It has happened quickly, too. Auckland International Airport chief executive Adrian Littlewood said before the boom, about 18 airlines had been flying to the airport for the last 10 or 15 years.
‘‘Now we’ve got 29, it’s suddenly jumped significantly and the growth has come with it.’’
While Auckland International Airport has welcomed 11 new airlines and 18 new international routes in the past year-and-a-half, Wellington International Airport also got a taste with Singapore Airlines last year, while Cathay Pacific has introduced a Hong Kong service to Christchurch.
Luxon said Air New Zealand now faced the most competition it had in its 77-year history.
‘‘The world’s getting increasingly wealthier.’’
That rapidly expanding middle class saw about 3.6 billion people travel on 36 million flights last year. As people become wealthier and can afford travel, they often start with shorter, three- or fourhour flights near their home.
Next, there are the iconic destinations everybody wants to travel to: Rome, London, Paris. Then there is New Zealand.
‘‘We very quickly come up in that next tier of places people want to come and visit,’’ Luxon said.
‘‘And so essentially, people have done those first few trips and now they want to come to New Zealand; it’s pretty high up there [on the list].’’
More and more people want to come here, but significantly, it is also a lot cheaper to do so.
Littlewood said the cost of jet fuel was roughly half of what it was in 2014 and aircraft technology and efficiency had improved, which combined to push ticket prices down.
At the same time, New Zealand has a strong tourism proposition and an industry which is all fighting for basically the same thing.
‘‘We’re seen as being trustworthy with integrity, and I think those things matter and they are values that are increasingly becoming valued globally in an uncertain world,’’ Littlewood said.
‘‘The kind of things people want to do when they travel has shifted from the material, ‘What can I buy when I travel?’ to ‘What experiences am I going to have?’ So I think the world has been shifting to the kinds of things we sell.’’
Luxon characterised New Zealand as a ‘‘highly aspirational’’ destination.
‘‘A lot of it’s coming through word of mouth – their friends have been here [and] had a great time.
‘‘New Zealand is seen as a safe destination; in a world of security concerns it’s seen as an environment that’s very attractive.’’
Auckland International Airport did ‘‘a helluva lot of work’’ in recent years promoting the country’s case to different airlines, while Air New Zealand and Tourism New Zealand had done lots of work as well, Littlewood said.