New Zealand remains underserved by airline capacity from around the word in spite of an influx of new services, according to Auckland Airport.
At a press conference marking Sunday’s inaugural United Airlines service between Auckland and San Francisco, Auckland Airport chief executive Adrian Littlewood said the US market remained ‘underserved by about 30% even taking the new capacity into account’.
This follows an analysis entitled Growing Travel Markets, presented by the airport’s general manager, aeronautical commercial Norris Carter. It asserts the massive China market is underserved by 39%, Japan by 28% and South Korea by 53%. Even Australia is underserved by 32%, the report claims.
‘This is not a forecast, rather a modelled view of market possibilities which we’ve based on a mix of public and proprietary data,’ says Carter.
‘The modelling we’ve done indicates the US is a strong market for passenger growth. New Zealand is an attractive destination for US travellers. This is why we have seen United and American come on board, and we see room for further growth.’
Dave Hilfman, United’s senior vice president worldwide sales, says the airline is pleased with the early loadings it is seeing on the airline’s Auckland to San Francisco service. The carrier is confident enough to be increasing from three flights a week to daily from 30 October.
He says 70% to 75% of the traffic of the passengers on the service are United States point of sale.
‘That’s not surprising considering the size of the market but we are also seeing growth out of New Zealand.’
Kevin Bowler, chief executive of Tourism New Zealand, was not prepared to speak directly about the airports anaysis.
‘There’s no doubt though that we're seeing a high level of interest from new and existing airlines to add services, which supports the view that there is considerable potential for new capacity into New Zealand.’
Brent Thomas, commercial director at House of Travel, says that with significant growth in capacities trans-Tasman and in other market’s growth, outbound from New Zealand has definitely grown as well. ‘But not by those figures presented by Auckland Airport, so they are obviously talking inbound.’
However Thomas says extra capacity is welcomed by the trade and clients here. ‘Not only does it bring competitive pricing but also gives a choice of routes and more choice on the preferred travel times. That’s true even in the short-haul markets. If there is more capacity in peak times such as the coming school holidays, then that’s a boon for the customer.’
