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Air NZ says it is axing its last remaining trans-Tasman flights out of Hamilton.
Last year it announced it was "suspending" flights between the city and Sydney and Hamilton to the Gold Coast during the quieter period between April and October.
Airline general manager for Tasman Pacific, Glen Sowry said today the remaining service between Hamilton and Brisbane will also be gone from April 25.
He said Air NZ "regretted having to suspend the service" but weak demand meant it was no longer viable. An "oversupply" of trans-Tasman flights from Auckland was having a direct impact on the Hamilton services.
This "oversupply" that Sowry mentioned will get even worse for the airline from next Monday, when Emirates Airline's latest plane will start flying into Auckland.
The airline's Airbus A380 - the biggest passenger plane in the world - will begin a three times a week service to Sydney.
Because it is much larger than Emirates' existing planes an extra 1200 seats a week will be added to the hotly-contested Tasman route. It has allowed it to offer Sydney return including taxes for less than $300.
Emirates plans to increase its A380 trans-Tasman service to daily when it has enough aircraft. The airline has reported "tremendous" interest from the travel industry in the new service.
Sowry said the airline's Hamilton-Brisbane service was "suffering from poor load factors and equally poor yield."
"Loadings on our Hamilton-Brisbane service have averaged 58 per cent over the past three months. In that time, we have flown the equivalent of 32 empty A320 aircraft between Hamilton and Brisbane. That is clearly unsustainable, and in the current environment we cannot afford to fly routes that make substantial losses with no forecast improvement."
The yield earned by the airline on the flights was also poor, with 94 per cent of fares sold being low earning sale or "smart saver" fares.
"Recent improvements to the road between Hamilton and Auckland also appear to be encouraging Waikato residents to drive to Auckland to take their Tasman flights."
"This has been compounded by a massive increase in competition on Tasman services out of Auckland with additional low cost carrier capacity and new wide-body capacity, creating an incredibly competitive market and great deals for the travelling public."
The news comes as Air NZ released passenger stats for December, which show numbers falling by more than 5 per cent.
The number of passengers on the trans-Tasman route fell 5.6 per cent, the number on North America/United Kingdom routes fell 15 per cent and the number of domestic passengers fell 2.9 per cent.
Group-wide yields for the year-to-date were up 7.5 per cent on the comparable period last financial year. Removing the impact of foreign exchange, group-wide yields were up 4.6 per cent.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING NZPA
