Outcry at Air New Zealand’s expensive domestic fares
Monday, 28 April 2025
If you’ve tried to book a weekend away recently, there’s a good chance you were shocked by the eye-wateringly high flight prices.
It’s a problem that’s resurfaced with Air New Zealand’s recent shocking long weekend, school and university term break prices.
One of last week’s headlines was the story of Tauranga dad Scott Koster who filed a complaint with the Commerce Commission after finding out it was cheaper to fly to Los Angeles than from Tauranga to Wellington with Air New Zealand.
'I'm flying each way $640 to Los Angeles in November, so it's cheaper to go to the States than it is to go to Wellington,“ he told RNZ’s Susan Edmunds.
Read this story in te reo Māori and English here. / Pānuitia tēnei i te reo Māori me te reo Pākehā ki konei.
He’d been trying to fly his daughter back to university and said it was currently cheaper for her to take a bus to Auckland, an Uber to the airport and then fly Jetstar to Wellington than it was to fly on Air New Zealand from Tauranga to Wellington.
The price was anything from $430 to $735 one-way.
The Post’s Andrea Vance wrote on Sunday about the airline’s prices, and why policing them is so hard.
Meanwhile, Southland and Otago travellers are saying they’ve been cut off from the rest of the country by reduced routes, uncertainty and crazy prices.
A Wellington-based parent of a student at Otago University, who wanted to see their child at home for the midterm break this April, was surprised to find they could fly from Wellington to Sydney around the same time for less.
The cheapest Air New Zealand fare from Dunedin to Wellington was over $500 one way when searched, they posted on social media.
“I get that Air NZ needs to make a profit, but this is ridiculous”, they said.
Minister for the South Island James Meager has consequently said regional flight reliability and connectivity is his “top priority”.
“We are considering what steps and investments we can further take to improve regional air connectivity, including regulatory changes,” he told the Otago Daily Times on Wednesday.
Air New Zealand's Chief Financial Officer Richard Thomson blamed cost of inflation since the Covid-19 pandemic for a rise in the airline's airfares.
He told RNZ’s Checkpoint the airline was not price gouging.
'We are hugely sympathetic to the travelling public, I know the cost of airfares over the past three or four years has gone up significantly.
'All of our costs have gone up by the thick end of 30% over the last three years, and obviously to run a sustainable economic business we need to ensure that is reflected in airfares.“
Air New Zealand has been approached for comment.
What do you think about Air New Zealand’s prices? Let us know in the comments below.