AIR - Air NZ.

[Beagle]

521416Haha. There is no denying that Jetstar are unbelievably awful LOL. But they are also significantly cheaper. So you tend to just suck it up and spend the flight dreaming about what you are going to spend all that extra cash on once you get there :-) AIR will find that its non-competitive routes get a lot more profitable, but they will face extra capacity on competitive routes that will drive down prices in the long run. I guess overall direction of the share price will depend on which routes are most profitable for AIR - domestic regional, domestic trunk or international.

See, that's it in a nutshell. I simply won't put up with unbelievably awful anymore no matter what the price advantage. I can however see your perspective and acknowledge for a lot of people its simply about the cheapest flight and nothing else matters but that's not the market AIR is in. Whatever happened to the concept that international air travel was special, an experience to be savoured and enjoyed, a special luxury and reward for one's hard work...even the illusion of this is nice to hang onto IMO. Jetstar's creaky old cramped sardine - flying bus torment is grossly oppressive and repugnant and so diametrically opposed to at least the illusion that international air travel is special that it wounds the soul and destroys the first and last part of one's holiday IMHO. Why travel third class when you don't have too !!

[andrewm]

I used to fly often between Auckland and Wellington (student) and would always pay upto 30% extra if needed to fly AIR NZ partially due to the budget nature of Jetstar but also in my 30+ flights over a few years I had 0 delayed AIR NZ flights and 5 or so delayed Jetstar ones. Twice my Jetstar flight was delayed extensively due to 'weather conditions' (didnt seem at all bad) when I watched the AIR NZ flight around that time depart and regreted choosing Jetstar. I also noticed (3 or 4 instances) Jetstar would close its baggage off bang on 30 minutes before departure whereas AIR NZ seemed to squeeze that late baggage check in traveller in and still leave on time.
I would find that if I booked far enough in advance the two airlines would be similar in price but as time got closer the AIR NZ one got much more expensive and sold out faster.
I recently booked some flights to Rarotonga and to the Gold coast and found AIR NZ to be miles cheaper than the competition.

[Poet]

Jetstar pi$$ed me off once big time with delays for no particular reason, and no compensation. Their attitude was, we're cheap so you shouldn't expect anything and should be grateful for what you get. When travelling these days, I don't even check their prices - so my choice is Air NZ on this day and time, or Air NZ on that day and time. I don't think I'm unusual in that attitude, if you can't get the basics right it doesn't really matter (to me at least) how cheap you are.

[Poet]

Also. I've got to say that I haven't travelled on the 787 but have done quite a few trips on the A380, and my observation is that the new gen aircraft are great from an airline point of view and from a shareholder point of view, but as a passenger, well meh! same old same old and the A380, having a circular fuselage, doesn't offer as good a view out of the windows, at least not from the top floor, as the old 747 or 777.

Maybe the cabin pressurisation and larger windows will offer better experience on the 787, but as I say, I haven't done that, so can't comment

[skid]

I think we have consensus here--Jetstar is awful--But AIR is trying hard to catch up with those 17''seats on its new already huge planes (even more seats than the maker recommends)--What were they thinking?

My 2 cents(on Jetstar)--who cares on the short flights--but avoid like the plague on the long haul

[Beagle]

Oil down 4% overnight. Brent $66 and change, WTI $63 for the front month January 2015 contract. Yesterday I checked the futures price for December 2015 Brent and it was trading at $73, so probably around $70 today so airlines can lock in tremendous fuel savings for the 2016 FY year already, if they choose to do so.

But AIR is trying hard to catch up with those 17''seats on its new already huge planes (even more seats than the maker recommends)--What were they thinking?

Even I would have to concede that I think the accountants had too much say in that decision 302 seats in a 787-9 when the manufacturer designed the plane for 280 means that effectively AIR has traded off much of the benefit of the Dreamliner from a customers perspective for seat mile cost savings. This looks like a strategy to match some of the lower cost airlines especially when viewed in the context of seat choice, i.e. seat only, seat plus bag, the works e.t.c. Most people won't mind as the pitch is okay but large people looking for comfortable long haul economy travel are probably better off on Singapore Airlines with their 19 inch width seats on A380's. www.seatguru.com is definitely a good place to visit for anyone contemplating long haul travel.
Is Air's premium economy with 19 inch width seats with 42 inch pitch effectively the new business class ?

What's the consensus updated view of analysts ? Consensus view is Outperform
http://www.reuters.com/finance/stock...?symbol=AIR.NZ
Scroll down towards the bottom of the page and you'll see that in the last month the consensus view of analysts for 2015 earnings has increased significantly from 22.63 cps to 26.44 cps. Highest analysts view is 31 cps translates on 1.117b shares to a whopping $346m profit after tax

Oil price to remain weak for three years
http://www.interest.co.nz/personal-f...tes-and-inflat

[h2so4]

I got 29.70 - hedges so I'm happy with that.

[brend]

Even I would have to concede that I think the accountants had too much say in that decision 302 seats in a 787-9 when the manufacturer designed the plane for 280 means that effectively AIR has traded off much of the benefit of the Dreamliner from a customers perspective for seat mile cost savings. This looks like a strategy to match some of the lower cost airlines especially when viewed in the context of seat choice, i.e. seat only, seat plus bag, the works e.t.c. Most people won't mind as the pitch is okay but large people looking for comfortable long haul economy travel are probably better off on Singapore Airlines with their 19 inch width seats on A380's. www.seatguru.com is definitely a good place to visit for anyone contemplating long haul travel.
Is Air's premium economy with 19 inch width seats with 42 inch pitch effectively the new business class ?

ANA have 395 seats on their 787-9's as most seats are economy. The seat width is wider though.

[Beagle]

ANA have 395 seats on their 787-9's as most seats are economy. The seat width is wider though.

WOW...that gives quite an insight as to how much room those lie flat business class seats take up in Air's configuration doesn't it and also gives insight into why business class airfares are priced where they are !!

[mikeybycrikey]

New Air NZ route to North America to be announced on Friday?

http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/6...n-new-US-route