Extra pain for Origin clients

Prepaid passengers of the grounded regional carrier Origin Pacific will have to fork out even more money to make their trips on Air New Zealand after the two airlines yesterday squabbled over whether there had been an agreement for Air NZ to rescue stranded Origin passengers.

Origin announced the suspension of all its passenger services on Thursday and director Robert Inglis said yesterday that Air New Zealand had originally agreed to take on the extra passengers.

But he said the bigger airline had reneged on the deal after comments from National MP Nick Smith.

Dr Smith accused Air New Zealand of "anti-competitive pricing", affecting Origin's ability to survive.

Air New Zealand yesterday said it had never arranged to take on Origin's stranded customers.

Chief executive Rob Fyfe said in recent weeks there had been discussion between the two companies, but Air New Zealand was unable to accept Origin's proposals.

Yesterday Air New Zealand announced it would offer Origin customers special standby fares so they could continue with their travel plans.

"We understand from Origin that it has collected around $1.5 million from 14,000 customers who have not yet travelled on the tickets they have purchased," Mr Fyfe said.

Customers who bought their tickets through travel agent Flight Centre were being offered a full refund yesterday.

Tauranga was one of several provincial centres yesterday mourning the loss of the collapsed airline.

"It'll be hard for the people of Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty to accept Origin again," said the airline's local operations manager, Daryl Hone.

He said any attempt to revive passenger flights in his region after cuts in services for the second time in two years would be difficult.

In 2004, Origin slashed jobs and flights during a bail-out by creditors owed $11.4 million, among them Air New Zealand.

Mr Hone, who was contracted by Origin to manage flights in and out of Tauranga Airport, spent yesterday morning helping to transfer passengers to Air New Zealand flights.

No jobs have been lost in Tauranga, as all Origin staff are employees of Mr Hone, who also operates the airport's Classic Flyers museum.

Origin is in talks with unions and Work and Income to try to find work for the more than 200 full-time and part-time staff nationwide who are now redundant.

It operated passenger flights between 11 centres, but Tauranga became a key focus with the launch just six weeks ago of a flight to Christchurch - the city's only direct South Island link.