Strong Turbulence Seen Over Our Skies

Strong Turbulence Seen Over Our Skies

A groundbreaking new internet tool from House of Travel has highlighted the turbulence in airfares to New Zealanders’ favourite destinations.

Analysis using hot.co.nz’s new FareFinder shows that an airline can go from being the cheapest to a particular destination to among the most expensive almost overnight - and that this volatility is commonplace.

House of Travel Retail Director Brent Thomas says this can make it particularly hard for kiwis to stay on top of pricing, or to get a clear picture of the cheapest airline overall.

A snapshot of the cheapest advertised and promotional fares from Auckland to Brisbane on 7th February 2010 over the next six months, for example, showed that Air New Zealand had the cheapest fares 74% of the time, with Pacific Blue having the cheapest fare the least amount of time with 5%.

Yet when assessed two days later on 9th February 2010, the results had changed to Pacific Blue having the cheapest fare 84% of the time and Air New Zealand only having the cheapest 2% of the time.*

Brent Thomas said the results underlined the benefits of taking an “agnostic” view of airlines, searching instead for the best price at the time you wish to travel.

Hot.co.nz has developed and launched FareFinder to make it possible to select the cheapest airline for any destination at any time. “By using our FareFinder, very quickly New Zealanders will build up a picture of which airlines regularly offer the lowest prices to their favourite destinations,” Mr Thomas says.

The HOT FareFinder searches more flights from available airlines than any other website, including those ‘hard to get’ airline promotional online fares. The results are displayed in an easy-to-view calendar by day, up to six months in advance and show the cheapest destinations for a holiday, key times of the year to pick up a deal and the best time of the day to fly for a bargain.

“FareFinder will be of particular value to those using the Internet to identify and book the cheapest fares. As shown by HOT.co.nz, increasingly we are seeing a trend towards one way fares and often getting the best price involves travelling on a different airline in each direction.”

Historically Internet users have had to go to several different airline websites and spend hours comparing options for the best deal. In recent years with low cost carriers entering the market we’ve even seen promotional fares as low as $1. Finding these fares is often difficult, time consuming and involves visiting several websites,” Mr Thomas says.

Hot.co.nz will augment FareFinder by providing regular updates on which airlines have the best priced fares overall to key destinations, based on averaged results over extended periods.

ENDS

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