Sanctions urged for leaving Air NZ passengers stranded

A travel business owner believes government-imposed penalties are the answer to improving Air New Zealand’s Timaru-Wellington service.

“The biggest issue at the moment is there is no financial penalty or anything there to encourage the airline to better manage its operations,’’ Timaru business owner Jeremy Talbot said. Talbot, referring to flights cancelled by Air NZ over aircraft engineering requirements and a shortage of engineers, vented his frustration after reading Rangitata MP James Meager's calls for a more reliable air service to and from Timaru which had the backing of the South Canterbury Chamber of Commerce. Meager had emphasised how the unreliability impacted on businesspeople and those with families who could not afford to spend unplanned nights away from home.

“If you get the morning flight to Wellington and they cancel the return afternoon flight for whatever reason, it may be possible to find your own way back to Christchurch on another flight, but once you get to Christchurch, you then have to try and find a rental car or something to get home back to Timaru at an extra expense as well,’’ he said.

Talbot said: “The very least Air NZ should be doing is putting on a mini-bus or something similar to make sure the people got back.’’

“The solution is very simple and that is an airline passengers’ rules charter. That is actual government-enforceable transport rules, where, if the airline fails to make its flight, that the passengers are in fact duly looked after.

“The biggest issue, I believe, facing Timaru and its issues is that there is no penalty for Air New Zealand not to provide a service.

Talbot said he had friends who now no longer flew out of Timaru. “It's a bit of a longer drive to get to Christchurch, but at least they know they are going to get to meetings on time. That also gives other options which is the other advantage. Coming home, if you’re late or early, you’ve got options to fly early or later out of Wellington. If Air NZ cancel, you are on your own ... so why take the extra financial risk when you can fly out of Christchurch to Wellington for less than half the cost of flying out of Timaru? Unless it is going to be a good service, people aren’t going to bother.

Air NZ general manager domestic Iain Walker said cancelling “is our very last resort”. As of late March 17 of 263 flights into and out of Timaru were cancelled – some because of engineering requirements. “Several [were] due to birds on the runway ... and we’ve also cancelled flights due to poor weather either in Timaru, or in Wellington where the inbound aircraft is coming from.’’