Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Alan Joyce says he has lobbied for New Zealand to be treated as a domestic destination from Australia.
According to Travel Weekly, Joyce told a travel industry symposium last week that the move, if effected, would have wide-reaching benefits not least of which are reduced operating costs for its B737-800 fleet which ply trans-Tasman flights.
At present, the aircraft are required to be towed from the domestic terminal at Australian airports to international terminals resulting in increased overheads.
“If we could have those aircraft coming to our domestic terminals we’d not have to tow aircraft between the two terminals; not have our engineers specialized on that aircraft and not having all the equipment, catering and resources duplicated,” he said.
According to the ch-aviation capacity module, for the week ending July 2, 2017, in terms of deployment, the B737s are used primarily for domestic Australian flights (338,430 seats/week - 93.29%) with New Zealand services accounting for 20,184 seats/week (5.56%). In comparison, B737-operated flights to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, and New Caledonia account for just 1.12% of the type's total weekly operations - 4,176 seats/week.
The two states currently share very close diplomatic and economic ties with the informal Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement allowing for the free movement of citizens of one nation to the other.
