"I could have had a seven-day holiday at the Gold Coast with my seven-day pass for theme parks included for that price."
Miss McCormack said she almost fell over at the cost of the fares. While they were booked at the last minute she said for something like a funeral there was no other option.
Her mum, who travels to Christchurch regularly, often flew from Auckland because of the high cost of fares, Miss McCormack said.
A reader on the Rotorua Daily Post Facebook page said they went to Dunedin last month and prices were almost $1000 cheaper to fly from Auckland, while another woman said it cost her almost $1000 to book return airfares for her and her husband to fly to Auckland, despite it being booked more than a month in advance.
It's also having an effect on people wanting to visit Rotorua.
Timaru man Julian Blanchard was keen to bring his son to Rotorua in the July school holidays and thought he had started investigating the flights well in advance. However, the flights for the pair were going to cost nearly $1600.
"It actually worked out cheaper to fly to Sydney or Brisbane so we decided against it."
Yesterday he checked the flights to come for the October school holidays but was again put off because of the cost - more than $2000.
Rotorua Chamber of Commerce chief executive Darrin Walsh said while the issue hadn't been raised with him since he'd started in the role, it was common sense that the higher the cost of regional travel, the more effect it would have on businesses.
"It is going to have an impact and cost more."
Mr Walsh said that businesses in Rotorua were lucky that they were reasonably central to places such as Auckland, so driving was an option but that did take longer.
He said if domestic air travel prices were reduced it would also make Rotorua a more attractive domestic destination.
Mark Rawson, interim chief executive of Rotorua District Council's business unit, Destination Marketing, Events, i-SITE and Venues, said the cost of domestic airfares would always be a consideration for travellers.
Air New Zealand said it was extremely conscious that to keep increasing its business and supporting regional economies it needed to offer as many cheap seats as possible.
A spokeswoman said the airline now offered more seats for under $100 than it did five years ago and average regional airfares had also decreased by about 1 per cent over the past five years despite increasing costs.
She said they were focused on moving to larger aircraft on regional routes where there was demand. " These larger aircraft have lower per seat operating costs which helps to keep downward pressure on regional fares."
