Pacific Blue Offers $30 Fares

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Pacific Blue Offers $30 Fares

Tuesday, 9 October 2007: New Zealand airline Pacific Blue has announced a special sale fare as it gears up to launch domestic flights within weeks.

The airline has announced a sale fare of $30* on the Wellington-Christchurch route as a “welcome back” gesture to Qantas following its revelation today it will now return to the route it discarded just 30 weeks ago.

“We find Qantas’ about-face on this route a little bemusing,” said Adrian Hamilton-Manns, General Manager Commercial for Pacific Blue.

“When it announced it was pulling out, Qantas said it was left with no choice but to cancel the Wellington-Christchurch services because of high operating costs and a competitive domestic market. We find their newfound sense of economic reality somewhat entertaining and a bit of a “flip flop” in their strategy, but we welcome the competition and look forward to giving them a run for their money.”

Mr Hamilton-Manns said he hopes the New Zealand public understands Pacific Blue’s genuine commitment to being the airline that brings low fares and more competition to the domestic market, which has been under the stranglehold of a duopoly for far too long.

“New Zealanders are a savvy bunch and will no doubt realise that if Pacific Blue hadn’t announced its domestic services, they’d still be paying the inflated prices that they’ve paid for years to fly within New Zealand”, Mr Hamilton-Manns said.

The airline said it welcomed Qantas back as it vindicated its decision to enter the New Zealand domestic market.

“In fact to celebrate the return of the Qantas flip-floppers we’ve decided to offer travellers a special Pacific Blue fare of $30*, on sale now for 30 hours, as a special tribute to the number of weeks that Qantas has been away from the market.”

Pacific Blue announced in August that it would start flying on New Zealand domestic routes in November. Since that announcement New Zealanders have already enjoyed significant savings on air travel because of the new competition.

The airline is adding two new 737-800 aircraft to its fleet from November, with another due early in 2008.

* Terms and conditions apply, for full details log on to www.flypacificblue.com

About Pacific Blue, Polynesian Blue, and Virgin Blue Airlines

Pacific Blue and Polynesian Blue, along with Australian domestic airline Virgin Blue, operate a fleet of 55 modern Boeing 737 aircraft flying to 22 Australian destinations and destinations throughout the South Pacific including New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu and the Cook Islands.

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