Quaint as

Many of you will recall the fracas when Qantas discontinued its Hamilton Island services last year, leaving Jetstar to cover the Whitsundays. It has taken a while, but a compromise has been reached and Qantas is back, to a collective sigh of relief.

Now it seems something similar is happening with New Zealand. Jetstar has replaced Qantas out of Melbourne and Brisbane for the Christchurch link, and is maintaining only a single daily flight from Sydney. As Christchurch has the only purpose-built convention centre across the Tasman, it could be thought that Qantas is not interested in looking after business travellers. I imagine the reasoning could be that 767s are not profitable on such routes, but what about 737s?

Many business events demand business-class travel. While Jetstar fulfils a role and is a good business model, it falls short when it comes to business-class seating.

One of two things could happen with this situation: either business travellers will use a competitor's airline or Christchurch will lose a percentage of the Australian market.

Our predictions for this year's business events to New Zealand are for a 48 per cent increase in C&I travel to the end of December*. What would this be worth to Qantas?

Robert Yeomans
PUBLISHER