Air fares row poser for Govt

Press, 15 August 1984, Page 1

Air fares row poser for Govt

By

LES BLOXHAM,

travel editor

Attempts by the Ministry of Transport to regulate international air fares could embarrass the Government. Labour, when the Opposition, branded the National Government’s unsuccessful moves to stop discounting “a fiasco” and called for the regulations to be abandoned. Travel agents and airlines are now anxious to learn Labour’s policy on cheap fares and whether it will persevere with regulations that appear to be unenforceable.

The issue will be discussed when the president of the Travel Agents’ Association, Mr R. J. Conway, meets the Minister of Transport, Mr Prebble, in Wellington next week.

“We want to know where we stand,” said Mr Conway yesterday. Sources within the travel industry believe the Labour Government is committed to a freeing up of the marketplace. In February, after “The Press” made known the range of “unofficial” cheap fares available “under the counter” in Christchurch, Labour’s spokesman on overseas trade, Mr M. K. Moore, attacked the Gov-

eminent for tiying to protect Air New Zealand with regulated fares. Mr Moore, who is now Minister of Tourism, said then that it was ironic that National’s Minister of Transport, Mr Gair — "who prides himself on his freemarket approach to transport” — had had to be told about the realities of the marketplace by the Travel Agents’ Association. If the regulations did not work they should be abandoned, said Mr Moore in February. The “incompetence” of the Ministry had confused the travel industry and allowed New Zealanders travelling overseas to be "ripped off.” The agency that caused the latest stir over cut-rate fares, the Budget Airfare Centre, is being flooded with inquiries. "We are flat out — can you call later?” said the company’s managing director, Mr Robin Mangos, yesterday. Later, he said that he was receiving calls from all over the South Island. “We have even had an inquiry from Melbourne — the person had apparently read the article on the flight across the Tasman,” said Mr Mangos. Asked how many international airlines were prepared to offer cut-rate deals, Mr Mangos paused for a moment. “I am trying to think of any that doesn’t,” he said. Mr Mangos confirmed that all major airlines were involved in discounting, but that “some are providing bigger discounts than others.” To a suggestion that his agency might be described as a “bucket shop,” Mr Mangos replied: “Certainly not. We offer the full range of fares. In London, bucket shops simply pour travellers into empty aircraft seats and they offer far greater discounts than we can offer.”