Air New Zealand has called out the tough market conditions in China, saying it has lost about $100 million since it first launched flights there.
Air NZ chief executive Christopher Luxon has pulled no punches in criticizing a market which is stacked heavily in favour of ‘large-scale state-backed businesses that can make losses flying to New Zealand.’
"Chinese airlines have unfettered access to New Zealand, but we don’t have the same access to China," Luxon said, speaking at the 2019 China Business Summit in Auckland.
Luxon took aim at the lack of available slots at Shanghai Airport and inconvenient flight timings.
He called on the New Zealand government to assist negotiations to help secure more flight slots in Shanghai, while easing visa requirements to encourage more inbound tourism to New Zealand.
That’s an optimistic goal that is unlikely to be achieved anytime soon.
Although 2019 is officially the China-New Zealand Year of Tourism, it got off to a rocky start.
The Huawei 5G issue has driven a wedge between the two countries as the NZ Prime Minister talked up the ‘dynamic’ NZ-China relationship at the Summit.
The fallout from New Zealand’s rejection of Huawei has already seen a drop in inbound Chinese arrivals during the first quarter, and China has used tourism as a political weapon elsewhere to good effect, particularly in Taiwan and South Korea.
