Air N.Z. blames big. loss on other airlines

Press, 19 April 1982, Page 29

Air N.Z. blames big. loss on other airlines

PA Auckland About half of Air New Zealand’s expected $9O million loss for the last financial year is a result of its long-haul Pacific route. Air New Zealand’s chairman, Mr R. A. Owens, has said that the AucklandUnited States route lost about $4O million in the year ended March 31. He blamed the "cutthroat” competition of other carriers on this route, such as Continental Airlines, Pan American World Airways, and to a lesser extent, Qantas. He considered they were filling aircraft but still could not make money. “Air New Zealand is caught up in this,” he said. “Everybody is supposed to charge the same fare, but

some are not.” In the past, he said, airlines “went broke" if they did not charge enough, but now the banks were keeping the airlines going. “They probably feel they will go broke themselves if the airlines fail,” he said. The New Zealand director of Pan American, Mr David Morgan, reacted to Mr Owen’s comment about the airline by saying that Pan American was in a critical position and did not have Government support the way Air New Zealand did. Pan American had a quarter of the weekly number of New Zealand-United States flights that Air New Zealand had. Mr Morgan asked how Pan American could be seriously competitive on the New Zealand market-place where, he

estimated, Air New Zealand would have between 60 and 70 per cent of the over-all market. The New Zealand manager of Continental, Mr W. W. L. Clague, said, “If Continental suffers a loss, it would be Continental’s fault. We certainly would not go round blaming other people.” The New Zealand regional sales manager of Qantas, Mr P. C. Sims, said that his airline did not fly between New Zealand and the United States. Qantas had never attempted to and was never likely to try to compete with Air New Zealand for New Zealand-United States traffic. “We are at a loss to understand why Air New Zealand would consider us a threat between New Zealand and the United States.” said Mr Sims.