Editorial: Airline competition across the Pacific great news at both ends of the line

A Delta Air Lines Airbus A350-900 plane.

The arrival of a squadron of aircraft from the United States is great news for the tourism sector and New Zealand travellers.

Not only has transpacific capacity recovered into Auckland Airport from the pandemic shutdown, it is soaring well ahead of levels in 2019.

The airport says there is 26 per cent more capacity to North America, and in January, there will e 27 more flights a week compared to the same time just before what was then a mystery virus in China swept around the world.

Going from just one airline on the Los Angeles to Auckland service a year ago - with resulting high prices - there will now be four flying the route during summer.

Newcomer to New Zealand Delta Air Lines is flying daily between Auckland and Los Angeles, United Airlines is flying three times a week, American Airlines will join the party in December with daily flights until March and incumbent airline Air New Zealand will fly up to 12 times a week, in addition to providing services to New York, Chicago, Houston and Vancouver.

Air Canada will soon increase the frequency between Auckland and Vancouver from three to four times a week.

Add to that Qantas stepping up to now fly non-stop to New York from Auckland four times a week and United breaking new ground by flying into Christchurch from San Francisco, and there’s better picture developing for consumers.

Airfares haven’t plunged yet; rather, the prospect of competition and the start of summer flying have put a lid on increases. But for Kiwi travellers, there are encouraging signs of prices coming down in the medium term. Some promotional fares on Delta have dropped below $1400 for return flights, more familiar to pre-pandemic travellers.

But the Kiwi dollar isn’t going as far as it did in times before the pandemic, spluttering over 60c to the greenback early this week, and as with many countries, the United States has experienced soaring inflation, pushing up on-ground costs for visitors. There’s still life in pent-up “revenge” travel, but many Kiwis will look elsewhere than the US.

Instead, the demand for airline seats is primarily coming from the US in the form of travellers who have increased spending power in this country. An American Airlines senior executive says there’s very strong interest in this country among US travellers.

They flocked to Europe earlier this year, and now have New Zealand in their sights.

Tourism NZ will early next year launch more promotional activity in the US market, a high-value visitor base. The influx of capacity from US airlines reflects the appetite to visit this country, where total holiday arrivals were running at 78 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.