Cheap fare offer holds

Press, 14 August 1984, Page 1

Cheap fare offer holds

By

LES BLOXHAM

travel editor Airlines are under pressure from the Ministry of Transport not to deal in cutrate fares with a Christchurch travel agency. The Ministry and the Budget Airfare Centre are at odds over whether the cheap fares — some many hundreds of dollars below “official” levels — are legal. “We believe we are not doing anything illegal,” said the agency’s managing director, Mr Robin Mangos, yesterday. “We are not challenging the Ministry, but we are not going to be intimidated,” he said. The Secretary for Transport, Mr A. J. Healy, has told all international airlines based in New Zealand not to provide travel at the cheap rates advertised by the agency. However, Mr Mangos said he was having no difficulty in obtaining tickets for his clients. In fact, he readily claims to have saved a Christchurch businessman more than $2200 on a fare to

Europe by ignoring the “21days away” requirement of a cheap epic ticket. His client, who needed only four days in Europe, would have paid $4856 for a normal economy ticket. Instead, he paid only $2572. “We are not offering anything special — this sort of deal has been available in Auckland for some time,” said Mr Mangos, who also owns four travel agencies in the North Island. He emphasised that cutrate fares were possible only if airlines were willing to provide them. Later this week he will undoubtedly cause more ripples in the industry by advertising a round trip from Christchurch to Honolulu and Tokyo (including three nights free accommodation in Tokyo) for $1479 — the same price as an “officially approved” fare from Christchurch to Honolulu and back. Mr Mangos, who opened his Christchurch agency last month, is a bonded member of the Travel Agents’ Association. He is also an accredited agent of the International Air Transport

Association, an authority which will allow him to. write and issue tickets as soon as he receives the airline’s official printing plates. His tickets are at present being issued through alternative sources in Auckland. Mr Mangos’s decision to “go public” with deals that, in the past, were available only to those in the know will test the validity of regulations intended to stop “unofficial” discounting. The Ministry has been trying to stamp out the practice for more than five years, but without success. Many within the industry believe the regulations are ineffective and should be withdrawn. The managing director of Rex Tours, Mr Rex Collins, told the Press Association in Wellington that it was generally believed by the travel trade that the law was unenforceable. He said he had presented the Ministry of Transport with two clear cases of illegal discounting of overseas air fares. One involved a $641 discount given by a Wellington

travel company on air fares between Auckland and Athens via Singapore and Bangkok. Mr Collins said the correct fare for the ticket would have been sl9Ol but it had been bought for $1260. “It took the Ministry three months to reply to the first complaint I made. When I did get a reply the Ministry said it was satisfied that the law had been broken, but nobody was prosec u ted “I am still waiting to find out what happened over the second complaint,” he said. Mr Collins said he had been told by an official in the Crown Law Office that the law was so confusing that it was. almost impossible to get a successful prosecution. The Deputy Secretary for Transport, Mr Brian Lynch, said that until recently there was some doubt that the legislation that existed at the time could be enforced in court, but the previous Government had made moves to tighten up the legislation. “The general conditions of this legislation were circu-

lated on March 30 and came into effect on April 16. This is now being followed up by specific tariff and commission regimes. The first of these which set more than 2000 fares between New Zealand and Europe, were gazetted on June 7,” said Mr Lynch. “We have completed work on another set and they are ready to go to the Minister for approval,” he said. Mr Lynch said the Ministry was as concerned as anybody in making sure that consumers were able to get the cheapest fares possible. The emphasis of the new legislation was on disclosure of what fares were available and encouraging airlines to take initiatives to provide a wider variety of fares. “There has been criticism in the past that certain people were in a privileged • position because they knew that if they went to certain travel agents or airlines they cofid get cheaper fares. The new legislation makes sure that those fares are available to everyone,”, he said.