Air wars: Jetstar offers one cent flights

A Jetstar flight departs Christchurch Airport. Photo / Simon Baker

Jetstar is offering domestic flights for one cent each this week as the battle to be the cheapest airline takes off.

There will be a total of 3000 one-cent seats sold during the Jetstar sale, with 600 on offer between 6pm and 7pm every week day.

It comes days after Air New Zealand slashed tickets between Auckland and Wellington to $7 each way on its late night flights in the week leading up to Christmas.

Conditions apply on the Jetstar sale and some bookings attract a fee of $5 per passenger.

Fares, which are not available on all flights or days, are one-way and non-refundable.

Jetstar group chief commercial officer David Koczkar said the airline was "committed to being the low fares leader in New Zealand".

"Jetstar has a proven business model to enable us to offer our customers consistently low everyday fares across our entire network, backed by our Price Beat Guarantee," Mr Koczkar said.

The one-cent flights cover the airline's entire domestic network of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Queenstown and Dunedin.

They went on sale last night and coincide with Jetstar's 100 millionth passenger milestone this week, Mr Koczkar said.

Air New Zealand's special night rider $7 fares are for travel between 17 and 24 December, and do not include checked baggage.

The price was a response to Jetstar's previously cheapest seats between Wellington and Auckland starting at $19 each way, with no checked baggage.