Wellington Airport is disappointed that Pacific Blue will cease flying domestically within New Zealand.

“We will be working closely with Pacific Blue to ensure minimal disruption to passengers.” said Steve Fitzgerald, Wellington Airport CEO.

Pacific Blue currently fly from Wellington to Auckland three times daily and Wellington to Christchurch two times daily, which is around 12% of Wellington’s air traffic on these routes.

With a reduction in capacity of 12,000 seats, we are likely to see load factors increase and could see Air New Zealand and/or Jetstar add to their Wellington capacity to meet passenger demand.

Wellington Airport welcomes the recent announcement by Jetstar that it will be introducing two new A320s into the New Zealand market by early 2011.

Pacific Blue will continue to connect six New Zealand cities to Australia and WIAL is pleased to see that the Virgin Group is expanding around the region.

“We look forward to continuing our close relationship with Pacific Blue to further develop Wellington’s international connections.” said Mr Fitzgerald.

Pacific Blue will continue to operate from Wellington to Brisbane daily and from Wellington to Sydney four times per week.

Pacific Blue will remain an important airline in the Tran-Tasman market and, as such, this announcement does not appear to impact the proposed Alliance between Virgin and Air New Zealand.

ENDS