Pacific Blue cuts back

Pacific Blue is cutting back on its domestic capacity as it redeploys planes to new transtasman routes and responds to a fall in leisure travellers.

The airline is cutting domestic capacity from August 1 by an estimated 13 per cent.

Auckland-Wellington services are reduced from 27 to 19 a week, Wellington-Christchurch fall from 19 to 12 and the Christchurch-Dunedin service is cut. The airline is starting a new direct Auckland-Dunedin service.

In September the airline will cut some transtasman flights from Auckland and Christchurch but start new services from Hamilton, Dunedin and Queenstown.

A spokesman said the cuts were not in response to Jetstar's arrival. Some schedule changes were to cater for the business market as more companies were shopping around for cheaper fares.