N.Z. travel costs up

Press, 9 November 1984, Page 6

N.Z. travel costs up

Travel editor

Travel within New Zealand will cost more when the Budget’s hefty increases in road and airways charges are applied over the next few months. Domestic air fares, which went up 7 per cent only last week, are expected to rise a further 6 per cent in the wake of the 75 per cent increase in airways dues from December 1. International air fares will not be affected. The increase, which would add $9 to the existing $149 one-way fare between

Christchurch and Auckland, will produce an extra $l6 million towards the cost of providing rescue-fire services, aviation security, airtraffic control, and lighting and navigational aids.

Top-dressing companies will not have to pay the increase.

The 46 per cent increase in road-user charges from February 1 will probably medn an increase of about 8 to 10 per cent in coach fares.

The new tax on employee fringe benefits could cost Air New Zealand millions of

dollars — or a lot of industrial trouble.

Free, or heavily discounted, air travel is one of the big perks of working for an airline. From April 1, Air New Zealand will have to pay a tax of 45 per cent on the “fair market value” of this benefit. If half of the airline’s 6800 employees took trips worth, say, $l2OO each a year, the company would be up for $2 million in tax. To a more modest degree, the Railways Corporation will also be liable for tax on free travel perks provided for its employees.