Low fare will cut Aust. trips

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34130, 17 April 1976, Page 1

Low fare will cut Aust. trips

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LES BLOXHAM,

travel editor of “The Press”)

A new excursion air fare between Auckland and Singapore which, from May 1, will slash 45 per cent off the present economy rate, will deal New Zealand’s i second blow to the Australian tourist industry in less than six months.

The fare will be $5Ol lower than the ordinary return fare, but travellers will have to fly with either Air New Zealand or Singapore Airlines. and they will not be permitted a stop-over in Australia. Last November Australia

was also cut from the excursion-fare route between Auckland and London by a joint New Zealand-British Government decision to restrict west-bound stop-overs to either Singapore or Hong Kong.

Up until then Sydney was a popular first stop for New Zealand travellers with excursion tickets to London. The move also effectively eliminated Air New Zealand’s competition in Sydney — the European airlines such as K.L.M., Lufthansa, Alitalia, and Australia’s Qantas — from touching the lucrative excursion traffic between New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Qantas will gain nothing 'from the new Singapore deal

either, because passengers will not be permitted to use Sydney as a transfer point. Air New Zealand passengers will take the new direct DCIO service from Auckland to Singapore. Those on Singapore Airlines flights will see only the transit lounge at Sydney’s Mascot Airport while their aircraft is made ready for the rest of the journey.

South Islanders will be unable to use the excursion fare to fly, for instance, from Christchurch to Sydney to connect with a Singaporebound flight. They will instead have to budget for an additional $lOO for N.A.C. fares to Auckland.

However, unlike the cheapest fares across the Pacific,

the new Singapore excursion tickets will not have to be bought 30 or 60 days in advance.

But travellers will be bound to stay in Singapore for a minimum period of seven days and no longer than 30 days. The fare will be $613 compared with the present economy-class rate of $lll4. While welcoming the new excursion fare, some Christchurch travel agents are predicting that it will reduce the flow of New Zealand holidaymakers across the Tasman. Mr Eric McFerran, manager of Union Travel, said the new fares would undoubtedly cause New Zealanders who were planning winter holidays in Australia to think

again, particularly in view of the adverse exchange rate on currency.

“Singapore and Malaysia have suddenly become a most attractive proposition,” he said. “And what is more, there are no package commitments or land arrangements tied to the deal — travellers will be able to do what they like once they get there.’’

Told that some people within the travel industry considered the deal was over-protecting the New Zealand and Singapore airlines, Mr John Berry, Air New Zealand’s public affairs controller, said: “We would not see it that way.” Every major carrier had its own bilateral arrange-

ments and the new excursion fare was simply an agreement between the flag carriers of New Zealand and Singapore, he said. “It would be unreasonable to expect the fare structure to include stop-overs in Sydney,” said Mr Berry.

He added that the excursion rate was being introduced to take up the increased capacity that would be available once Singapore Airlines introduced its twiceweekly service into Auckland on May 4. And what does Qantas think about it all?

“We are still looking into all the implications,” said Mr Barry Young, the airline’s press relations manager in Auckland.