▼

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Welcome Pacific Blue!

Just in the last week or so, Pacific Blue [local outpost of Australia's Virgin Blue] has started flying New Zealand's rather lucrative main trunk [Auckland / Wellington / Christchurch] routes. Pacific Blue have been flying trans-Tasman [to/from Australia for those of you outside of the Pacific region] for some time, and so it was only a matter of time I guess before they decided to enter the domestic market.

If nothing else, it has provided a temporary shakeup, with plenty of $39 one way fares. While fares will undoubtedly rise in the future, this arrival of competent domestic competition has seen the two other main operators [Air New Zealand and Qantas] respond in ways that can only be good for the consumer.

The only issue is that historically, New Zealand only really has room for a couple of domestic main trunk operators. It will be interesting to see how things lie in a couple of years. Pacific Blue/Virgin Blue is a tough competitor, and I doubt that they will give up easily.

Anyway, here's a couple of pictures.

Pacific Blue B737Pacific Blue B737
at

2 comments:

  1. Flyinkiwi22 November 2007 at 10:20

    Did you see or get photos of the ground looped Cessna?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rodney22 November 2007 at 12:49

    Hi Euan,

    I know nothing more than what has been in the media [and much of that sounded sufficiently confused as to make me think that the truth will come out later, rather than sooner :-)].

    Cheers,

    Rodney

    ReplyDelete