Jetstar will use a 188-seater Airbus A320 Neo on its two new Hamilton-Australia services from next year.
Jetstar will use a 188-seater Airbus A320 Neo on its two new Hamilton-Australia services from next year.
“Use it or lose it” – that’s the message from Hamilton airport on the news that direct transtasman flights are returning to the city next year for the first time in 12 years.
The advice from airport chief executive Mark Morgan is hardly new – the new Jetstar service willbe the fourth try to make a success of the direct Tasman crossing in 30 years but, for Waikato and Bay of Plenty people who have to take on Auckland and its airport to get to and from Australia, the news is an early Christmas present.
The Qantas subsidiary will offer four return flights a week between Hamilton and Sydney, and three a week between Hamilton and the Gold Coast, from June next year.
It will be the first time the low-cost carrier has touched down at Hamilton, and while Morgan told the Herald Jetstar has put no commercial conditions on the number of passengers the new Hamilton service must attract, or timeline for it, he is blunt in his messaging for good reason.
Jetstar’s debut will be the fourth effort by an airline to sustain a Hamilton transtasman service.
The first, Kiwi Airlines, founded in 1994 by Hamilton’s Ewan Wilson, went bankrupt in 1996, after duking it out with Air New Zealand’s competitive response, the no-frills Freedom Air.
Air NZ closed Freedom Air down in early 2008, operating its own full service instead. By August 2009, the national carrier said transtasman passenger numbers had dropped to an unsustainable level and it ceased the service. Virgin Australia stepped into the gap late in 2009 but said passenger numbers were too low and it disappeared from Waikato skies in late 2012.
But the airport and the greater region will be hoping this is fourth time lucky – Hamilton airport has an established international airport structure, the greater Waikato population has swelled to now nudge 523,000 (the airport claims the potential for one million within 60 minutes drive of it) and the airport’s own balance sheet is five times stronger than it was the last time aircraft flew in from Australia.
Hamilton airport is owned by five local councils: its net profit before tax in FY23 was $18.5m, compared to $3m in FY19.
Morgan won’t discuss the business case or details of the Jetstar deal for commercial reasons but expects the airport to have to make a capital investment of just $4m-$5m. This will be to prepare the northern part of its terminal and improve car parking and some other customer services.
Hamilton airport chair Barry Harris (left) and chief executive Mark Morgan.
“From Hamilton airport’s position, we are far more diverse and a stronger company. We’re in good shape. Our (shareholding) councils are very supportive because they see the economic benefit to the region. We’re the economic enabler in this transaction, so for us it’s about ensuring the region is better off, that’s primarily our role.”
The airport’s analysis is that the flights, expected to bring more than 100,000 extra passengers through its doors a year, will boost the regional economy by around $45m annually.
Jetstar in a statement said the airline was “in a period of unparalleled growth”, launching five new routes in the past three months and providing more low-fare connections to key New Zealand regions.
Morgan said the conversation with Jetstar started more than a year ago – but one of the biggest challenges was arranging official border controls for the venture. Hamilton does not host border control agencies.
“There were two major pieces of negotiation – one with the airline and one with the Crown. We had to work with the border agencies to ensure it could happen, and at the same time, we were working with the airline to reach commercial agreements .... of course, the airline needed to know the border agencies would be there to serve customers. Conversely, the border agencies needed to know there was credible airline interest.”
Morgan said aside from the lure of low-cost fares, what should appeal to locals is not having to drive to and from Auckland airport, “not losing half a day in the process” and lower parking costs at Hamilton.
“That’s what we think is the huge advantage. The fares will be competitive - very competitive - but of more importance is the convenience factor ... without the challenge of the congestion getting to Auckland and the congestion through Auckland Airport. We think there’s an opportunity there.”
Andrea Fox joined the Herald as a senior business journalist in 2018 and specialises in writing about the $26 billion dairy industry, agribusiness, exporting and the logistics sector and supply chains.
