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Speaker 1: You might have seen this in New Zealand's pulling out

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Speaker 1: of in the Cargo Wellington route. This is happening in January.

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Speaker 1: They say that the decision came down to engine issues

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Speaker 1: and softening of demand. Domestically, customers can still go to

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Speaker 1: in Vicargo from Wellington, but you've got to go via

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Speaker 1: christ Church. Chemmy abasing it here is with us this

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Speaker 1: morning from the Great South, which is the tourism agency

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Speaker 1: down there. Thank you for being with me. Is this

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Speaker 1: a big loss the Wellington route?

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Speaker 2: Definitely is. We're very disappointed. We've worked really hard as

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Speaker 2: a region to establish where we are at this point

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Speaker 2: in time. Economic development's been really good, the growth has

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Speaker 2: been really good. Tourism is almost back to pre COVID

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Speaker 2: levels and one of the key factors behind this is

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Speaker 2: our accessibility. And you know, the direct flights from the

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Speaker 2: main centers from Auckland and in Auckland, Wellington and christ Church.

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Speaker 2: So losing a direct route between in the Caago and

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Speaker 2: Wellington is extremely disappointing for us.

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Speaker 1: Do you know how many tourists or how much it

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Speaker 1: might cost your region?

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Speaker 2: No, we haven't really done that sort of modeling, but

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Speaker 2: you know, like I mean as a New Zealand said,

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Speaker 2: you can still come to us via christ Church, and

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Speaker 2: they're proposing that they will have additional flights put on

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Speaker 2: for us to and from christ Church, so that you

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Speaker 2: know there is still those opportunities. I don't know. We

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Speaker 2: haven't been informed of what those routes and those additional

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Speaker 2: flights are like yet.

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Speaker 1: Is the Auckland route in any doubt? Have you asked

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Speaker 1: in New Zealand about that?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, they have guaranteed that it isn't the whole reason

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Speaker 2: they've gone to this particular flight. I think one of

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Speaker 2: the reasons is also about our experts going from in

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Speaker 2: the cargo. We've got the jet service via Auckland, and

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Speaker 2: of course we've got opportunities to connect to the international

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Speaker 2: world via christ Church. So those two routes are secure.

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Speaker 2: The loadings they say to Wellington is also they're also full.

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Speaker 2: I mean, the flights are fall Anybody who's been on

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Speaker 2: that flight will know that there's hardly a fair seed.

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Speaker 1: But that's good that they've guaranteed it. Yeah, Jimmy, thank

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Speaker 1: you very much for your time this wanting really appreciate it. Jemmy,

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Speaker 1: I was singing joining us from Great South she's the

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Speaker 1: chief executive of the Economic Development Agency down there. It

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Speaker 1: is It is annoying, isn't it. When you go to

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Speaker 1: book a flight and they say, oh, you're going to

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Speaker 1: go via christ Church. It just changes the game. You're

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Speaker 1: not going to go down for the day, which is

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Speaker 1: kind of what I was looking at doing and a

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Speaker 1: while ago for work. It just becomes a whole multi

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Speaker 1: day thing, doesn't it. So it is a bit of

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Speaker 1: a game changer, though thankfully the Auckland one seems to

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Speaker 1: be guaranteed for more from news talks, there'd be listen

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Speaker 1: live on air or online and keep our shows with

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Speaker 1: you wherever you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.