Heather du Plessis-Allan: We should be pleased Air NZ is profitable

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Recorded23 Feb 2023

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I'm gonna come to Air NZ’s defence. As expected, the airline just reported a decent profit of $213 million dollars, which is a whopper when you consider the $725 million dollar loss this time last year. It means that business has just done a billion dollar a turn around. They're already copping it from some for charging too much, and actually have been copping since analysts first started predicting this result two weeks ago. There is no denying Air NZ has made this money off the back of charging a lot more than they used to. Domestic ticket prices are 15-20 percent higher than last year. They're managing this by reducing the number of flights, which means because there are fewer seats, you have to pay more to buy one of the few seats available. Basic supply and demand. It is frustrating to fly Air NZ at the moment, I agree. The staff are often under the pump, the flights are late, they’re chocka. You struggle to get a seat and if you do, you struggle to change to a different flight on the day because of the shortage of flights. You definitely never want to have to call their call centre because those are hours of your life you will never get back. And you're probably taking a risk on that New York flight. But still, I will defend them. Because what do you want? The airline to make money or not? We own 51 percent of Air NZ as taxpayers. The more money they make, the more money we get from them. They're considering paying a dividend this year, that’s good news. And by the way, the same thing’s just happened over the ditch. Qantas- $1.5 billion dollar profit. Why? Expensive tickets. Sure, no one likes forking out heaps for a plane ticket on an unpleasant trip. But what we like even less than that is investing in an airline that’s not doing its job, which is to make us money. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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