Ditching NZ plans would be worst case scenario - Virgin Blue

By NZPA

Tuesday 22nd October 2002

Virgin Blue's plans to fly to New Zealand would depend on what conditions were placed on any deal between Qantas and Air New Zealand, head of commercial operations David Huttner said today.

Comments by chief executive Brett Godfrey that Virgin Blue would expand across the Tasman only if Qantas failed to get a stake in Air NZ represented the worst-case scenario, he said.

Qantas and Air NZ remain in talks, with neither party indicating when an announcement was likely.

Mr Huttner said it was not a case of Virgin ditching New Zealand if Qantas were successful in buying into Air NZ.

"It depends on the nature of the deal and what the regulators' views are," he said.

"We need to see what sort of undertakings would be required of Air NZ and Qantas as to acceptable competition behaviour.

"Brett's comments do represent our position in an extreme scenario, where there are no guidelines and no rules, but we do hope it doesn't get to that stage."

The Australian newspaper today reported that Virgin Blue had warned it would look elsewhere in the region rather than take on a combined Qantas and Air NZ.

"If we end up with a joint services agreement across the Tasman between Qantas and Air NZ, we won't be going there -- it's as simple as that," Mr Godfrey told the newspaper.

"We walked into a duopoly (in Australia) where we knew Ansett was weak.

"But we wouldn't walk into a monopoly where you've got Air NZ as the dominant player in its home market and Qantas, and them being able to target us on the Tasman. It would be suicide."

Mr Godfrey said Virgin Blue would consider routes in the Pacific and Asia.

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