Rotorua rejects Brisbane flights

A new Australian airline says it is considering launching flights between Rotorua and Brisbane or Sydney.
But Rotorua Regional Airport chief executive George White says the airport has no plans to use the start-up airline, Pacific Wings. Mr White said the airport's "complete focus" was getting Air New Zealand's transtasman flights between Rotorua and Sydney up and running by December 12.
Pacific Wings director Geoffrey Bowmaker told The Daily Post Rotorua Airport was one airport in New Zealand the airline was considering operating from.
He said he had been in discussions with Mr White for between six and eight months.
"We are still doing our planning and discussions about it ... Our plan was to link Rotorua with Sydney and Brisbane."
Pacific Wings, which has operated since May, has advertised on its website a $799 Rotorua Escape package including five nights' accommodation.
However, Mr Bowmaker said the website was not active and was still being developed.
The carrier would use a leased B737 aircraft from Our Airline, formerly Air Nauru, on routes in New Zealand. Australian-based Our Airline has two B737 aircraft which operate daily flights from Brisbane and Sydney to Honiara, Nauru and Norfolk Island.
Mr Bowmaker said the airline would launch on routes in New Zealand abandoned by Air NZ or airports where there had never been a transtasman route.
He said the fact Air NZ had launched transtasman flights between Rotorua and Sydney would influence Pacific Wings' decision but that did not necessarily mean the airline would not fly from Rotorua. Pacific Wings is expected to make its decision within the next month as to what routes it will fly.
But Mr White said that at this stage the airport did not have any plans for the airline to fly from Rotorua.
Other questions were put to Mr White including why Pacific Wings would not be used to fly to Brisbane, whether any other airline would be used to fly to other parts of Australia and whether Air NZ had exclusive rights to transtasman flights between Rotorua and Australia.
Mr White responded by saying: "As you can imagine, at the moment we are completely focused on getting transtasman flights with Air NZ up and running for December 12 - that is our priority at this time. Airlines make their own decisions about where they may fly. Certainly, at this current time, we do not have any plans for them to fly here."
Air NZ communications manager Mark Street said he would not be able to comment on whether the airline had exclusive rights to fly transtasman from Rotorua Airport, citing commercial sensitivity. He said Brisbane was the "next obvious market" but introducing those flights would depend on the success of the Rotorua-Sydney route.