Increase objection

Press, 23 June 1981, Page 10

Increase objection

PA Wellington Air New Zealand should not be granted a fare increase until Parliament's Public Expenditure Committee had completed its investigation of the airline, said Labour's Associate Shadow Minister of Transport, Mr John Kirk. He was commenting on the airlind's application for a 7.5 per cent domestic fare increase. If it was granted, Mr Kirk said, that would give the airline about a 30 per cent fare increase in a year. This would lead to less patronage “and in the end a less profitable airline.” Air travel was now out of the reach of most New Zea-

land families, Mr Kirk asserted. The Public Expenditure Committee should complete its report before any increase was agreed to. “The whole point at looking at the financial workings of the airline is to look at waj’s that they could be made more efficient. For a fare increase to go ahead before the committee reaches any conclusion is to usurp the whole point of the inquiry,” Mr Kirk said. Labour long advpcated the removal of the ' domestic travel tax and the fuel tax as measures that would enable Air New Zealand to work with more financial freedom, he said..