Air travel prices cause chaos

Press, 10 April 1979, Page 1

Air travel prices cause chaos

By

LES BLOXHAM,

I, travel

editor International airline tickets worth millions of dollars have been issued by New Zealand travel agents over the last four days to cost-conscious clients anxious to beat the 7 per cent increase in fares for flights from May 1.

The rush began soon after Air New Zealand announced on Wednesday that the increase would not be applied to tickets bough, before midnight on Sunday. Travel agents from one end of the country to the other had their busiest time for years. In Christchurch alone, three agencies worked through the week-end and issued tickets worth more than $600,000. The total national value is expected to exceed SSM.

The financial success of the exercise was not, however, accomplished without difficulty. Indeed, the travel industry was thrown into chaos on

Thursday when Air New Zealand amended its Wednesday decision to allow flights to be sold up to 12 months in advance at the old rates provided ticketing was completed before yesterday.

The airline’s new directive said that tickets issued for flights on or after June 1 would now be subject to the 7 per cent increase. Tickets sold in the previous 24 hours would have to be recalled and the surcharge applied. The agents were reproachful. Clients who had been queuing to buy tickets for flights beyond June 1 were told they would save nothing. Others already holding tickets were asked to bring them, and their cheque books, back to the agencies. But on Friday, the situation changed yet again. The airline sent a further directive to the agencies cancelling the previous day’s order and restoring the original instructions issued on Wednesday. Several agents in

Christchurch yesterday said that the airline’s handling of the matter had caused them unnecessary work, considerable embarrassment and loss of business. The public had also been totally confused. Criticism in Auckland was even stronger. A report in the “New Zealand Herald” quoted one agent as saying that the action was “the worst thing Air New Zealand has done in 20 years. The matter was handled extremely badly.” Defending his airline, Mr N. R. Searle, director of marketing, said “it was not what Air New Zealand wanted.” The order on Thursday was issued on instructions from the Ministry of Transport in Wellington and was rescinded only after strong representations were made by Air New Zealand. Tickets for international flights leaving New Zealand before midnight on April 30 remain free of the 7 per cent increase and may still be sold at the old rates.