Finally some real competition in the skies!!

Wellington is the big winner from Pacific Blue's announcement that it will start flying between the main centres from November 15. The budget airline, owned by Virgin Blue of Australia, will restore competition between Wellington and Christchurch, a route abandoned by Qantas in March, and increase trans-Tasman services from the capital. Virgin Blue chief executive Brett Godfrey said in Wellington yesterday the additional Tasman services were possible because of Pacific Blue increasing its fleet of 180-seat Boeing 737-800 by three, to seven. All would fly domestic and Tasman services. "What we are looking at doing out of Wellington is something a couple of times a week, and a couple of times a week into another (New Zealand) market." An announcement on destinations would be made about November. Pacific Blue axed its service from Wellington to Sydney, which ran five times a week, in 2005 in favour of more lucrative routes out of Auckland. It still flies three times a week to Brisbane. The airline's long-awaited domestic arrival was welcomed by the tourism and travel sector. Positively Wellington Tourism chief executive Tim Cossar said competition stimulated a market and it was "highly likely we will see inreased domestic travel to Wellington". The airline took the domestic market by storm yesterday, with travellers scooping up more than 30,000 seats at a $39 launch fare. It is understood 70,000 of the fares are available. Pacific Blue's lowest standard fares, starting at $59 between Wellington and Christchurch, undercut Air New Zealand by $20, forcing the national carrier to match them to protect its market share. But whereas Pacific Blue's initial schedule is for a total of 10 return flights a day between the three cities, Air New Zealand operates 56 daily flights on the same routes. Pacific Blue would not try to match Air New Zealand's network or flight frequency, Mr Godfrey said, but would expand the market by lowering the cost of travel. Virgin Blue Group had A$700 million (NZ$800 million) in the bank, which would allow it to fly 139 days without income. House of Travel retail director Brent Thomas said the plans were aggressive and showed Pacific Blue was serious about competing long term. Air New Zealand's group general manager of short-haul airlines, Norm Thompson, said the national carrier would defend its position in New Zealand, where it had grown the domestic market by 40 per cent since introducing a lower fare model in 2002. Air New Zealand will announce changes to its services on Tuesday.