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Speaker 1: Now our chat with a New Zealand's CEO, Nichol Ravashanka

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Speaker 1: was interesting last night, especially when we got to the

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Speaker 1: issue of cutting unprofitable regional roots. We're reviewing all parts

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Speaker 1: of the business. Does that mean you're reviewing roots?

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Speaker 2: We are.

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Speaker 1: Would you if you found that there are roots that

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Speaker 1: are unprofitable, do you want to cut them?

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Speaker 2: That? We do that as general course of business all

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Speaker 2: the time and we'll continue to keep doing that.

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Speaker 1: James Meager is the Associate Minister of Transport who was

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Speaker 1: in charge of the aviation sector and with us.

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Speaker 2: Now, Hi James, Good afternoon, Heather.

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Speaker 1: Which routes are they looking at with a view to cutting.

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Speaker 2: I've got no idea. But that wasn't my favorite part

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Speaker 2: of your interviews today.

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Speaker 1: I have to say, what was your favorite part?

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Speaker 2: Well, it was the chat about pri emojis later on.

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Speaker 2: But in terms of that interview, look, I understand nickel

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Speaker 2: situation in New Zealand's had a tough time over the

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Speaker 2: past few years. Have been faced with some costs they

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Speaker 2: can't manage themselves or control in terms of the parts

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Speaker 2: of the planes and all that. But there are some

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Speaker 2: other commercial decisions they could make and I would hope

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Speaker 2: that regional connectivity is not one of those.

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Speaker 1: What are the other decisions that they could make?

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Speaker 2: I think looking what Nichol's doing and looking at how

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Speaker 2: their business runs generally, whether they are running as efficiently

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Speaker 2: and as sharply as they can have, they had their

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Speaker 2: focus in the right place. And I make these comments

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Speaker 2: sort of as a wider aviation minister who's concerned about

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Speaker 2: making sure that we've got a really good connection or

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Speaker 2: national carrier and smaller regional airlines. So I'm hoping that

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Speaker 2: their focus is on making sure they can run as

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Speaker 2: sharp and good of a business as possible.

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Speaker 1: Are you talking about the system that they've set up,

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Speaker 1: Was it with air chathams where they can check in

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Speaker 1: the luggage all the way through from internationally all the

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Speaker 1: way through to Fakatane.

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Speaker 2: Their interlinings is one option of how they could work

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Speaker 2: closely with regional airlines. And actually we've put forward some

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Speaker 2: of your taxpay dollars into help them support the technology

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Speaker 2: that could connect to them with other airlines. So if

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Speaker 2: we're looking at making sure we strengthen regional routes, that

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Speaker 2: is hopefully an option they are looking at, and I

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Speaker 2: would extend that to other airlines who are interested in

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Speaker 2: supporting regions as well.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so I'm under the impression somebody has alluded me

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Speaker 1: to the fact that potentially what may happen here, for

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Speaker 1: in New Zealand is that they shut down regional routes

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Speaker 1: where there is a small carrier like air Chathams that

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Speaker 1: can basically pick up the loads so that that region

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Speaker 1: is not cut off. But in New Zealand is not

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Speaker 1: the one servicing it is that what's going on here?

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Speaker 2: That could be the case. From memory, there aren't too

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Speaker 2: many regional routes that in New Zealand flies where there

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Speaker 2: are other regional airlines that fly that, so I would

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Speaker 2: think that's probably not likely to be the case. I

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Speaker 2: can only think of a few coming in and out

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Speaker 2: of Nelson and maybe some of the other operators. For example,

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Speaker 2: the flight to my hometown in Timaru is only an

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Speaker 2: a New Zealand route and I would be highly surprised

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Speaker 2: if they decided to make any changes to that one.

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Speaker 1: So until James, what if others were encouraged to pick

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Speaker 1: up some of these So for example, let's just take

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Speaker 1: Timaru as an example. I'm not saying that this is

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Speaker 1: the one but let's say that a New Zealand said, look,

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Speaker 1: we want to pull out of Timaru, does anybody else

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Speaker 1: want to take it up? And maybe ear Chathams takes

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Speaker 1: it up for example. Could that it's also to happen.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so, it's a possibility. What we really

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Speaker 2: care about, I think out in the regions is making

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Speaker 2: sure there is any airline that can get us from

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Speaker 2: A to B so we can make sure we see

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Speaker 2: family and do business. If that's the New Zealand, that's great.

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Speaker 2: If that's Chatham's or Sound's air or Origin or any

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Speaker 2: of the other ones, that's also great. That's why we're

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Speaker 2: putting a lot of focus into regional airline connectivity and

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Speaker 2: support for some of those smaller airlines. And if there

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Speaker 2: is an arrangement where in New Zealand can support those

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Speaker 2: airlines to make sure that they can continue providing services

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Speaker 2: at I would hope the same or better level, then

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Speaker 2: I'm sure the public would be open to that.

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Speaker 1: Is this why they actually went hard on this interline thing?

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Speaker 1: Is this why we've pumped money into it to allow

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Speaker 1: this to happen in some of the regional routes.

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Speaker 2: It's possibly part of their long term strategy. But I

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Speaker 2: think they were considering these kind of arrangements before COVID

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Speaker 2: came through under I think previous iterations of Your New Zealand,

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Speaker 2: they were looking at interlining and almost got it across

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Speaker 2: the line. But of course COVID changed the nature of everything,

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Speaker 2: not just in the air industry, but put the kaibosh

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Speaker 2: on that for a while. So I think it's been

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Speaker 2: a long thing they've been trying to do to create

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Speaker 2: better links in and out of the regions so that

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Speaker 2: they can I guess share the load with other regional airlines.

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Speaker 2: But look, if interlining is a way that we can

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Speaker 2: make sure we keep regional routes and keep regional connectivity

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Speaker 2: and still get people from A to B and perhaps

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Speaker 2: overseas for a holiday and back again, then happy to

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Speaker 2: do that too.

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Speaker 1: Cool. Do you have to give it a sign off

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Speaker 1: or is this not something that goes to a mynsterial level.

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Speaker 2: No, No, that's these are basically entirely commercial decisions for

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Speaker 2: any hiland to make, even the interlining stuff. Our role,

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Speaker 2: I guess is to look at how we can provide

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Speaker 2: central support for maybe the smaller airlines to update their

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Speaker 2: technology or improve their baggage handling facilities, because what you

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Speaker 2: want is to make sure that when you check in

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Speaker 2: with Saya Chadams and your bag pops out the other

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Speaker 2: end in christ Church or Auckland, wherever it is, that

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Speaker 2: it's gone all the way through and it there's no worries.

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Speaker 2: So we'll make sure we provide them support with their

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Speaker 2: But other than that, these are commercial decisions.

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Speaker 1: For what are you hearing about the New York Crouse

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Speaker 1: Are they going to shut that down?

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Speaker 2: Haven't heard anything on that, No, And I would hope

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Speaker 2: that you know, we want to create connections between international visitors.

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Speaker 2: International visitor demand has been increasing and that's a great

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Speaker 2: way that we can solve some of our problems in

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Speaker 2: the aviation sector. If we can grow the whole sector,

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Speaker 2: get more people coming here and get more people spending money.

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Speaker 2: You know, we're putting a lot of focus on tourism.

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Speaker 2: I would hope that we can maintain and grow those

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Speaker 2: routes and that's why we've done things like shift O

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Speaker 2: Harkey to twenty four seven to attract some more international

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Speaker 2: airlines as well. And you know that brings a bit

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Speaker 2: of competition, and that brings a bit down with pressure

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Speaker 2: on prices.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff man, Thank you for listening. I'm glad you

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Speaker 1: enjoyed the poo emoji chat quite as much as I

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Speaker 1: enjoyed it. James Meaga, Associate Minister of Transport and Charge

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Speaker 1: of Aviation. That guy needs a pay rise.

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Speaker 2: Doesn't he. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen

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