Air New Zealand Air Points - Just recieved from Air New Zealand

Air New Zealand's future growth strategy is based on offering the travelling
public affordable airfares.

There are three components of that strategy - Air New Zealand Express Class,
which has been extremely well received by the public; Freedom Air, which has
exceeded all our expectations as a low cost, trans Tasman carrier; and the
strategic Alliance with Qantas.

Through the Alliance Air New Zealand will offer travellers better scheduling to
more destinations, and sustain our affordable airfare strategy in a market
where our operations are placed under competitive and commercial pressure from
other airlines.

In early April, the New Zealand Commerce Commission will make its draft
determination as to whether the Alliance should proceed. Regardless of whether
this is positive or negative, it will clarify the issues on which the
Commission requires further input from the airlines or from opponents of the
Alliance.

Air New Zealand is totally committed to the Alliance, believing it to be in the
best interests of the travelling public. In the event of the Commission's
decision being negative we will continue to work hard to convince them of the
benefits we believe this Alliance will bring for our customers in ensuring the
long-term survival of Air New Zealand as a successful, independent, New Zealand
owned international airline.

I look forward to your continued support of Air New Zealand and our proposed
Alliance as one of our valued Airpoints customers. To view answers to key
questions on the Strategic Alliance with Qantas, please click the link below:
http://breakingnews.webairnz.co.nz/international/questions.html

RALPH NORRIS
CEO


The question is, will this rip Air New Zealand out of The StarAlliance or not??
What do people think:?

Cheers

Probably not, especially when the 'penalty' for leaving is pretty steep from what I understand.

Let's hope that Qantas joins the StarAlliance. Now that would rock.

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Greetings from the land of 10,000 lakes.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by MRSTARALLIANCE:
The question is, will this rip Air New Zealand out of The StarAlliance or not??
</font>

The likely outcome on the QF/NZ application is that the ACCC and the NZ CCC will only approve the link-up contingent upon QF and NZ meeting certain conditions. And the conditions could be so unpalatable to them that one or both airlines will back out of the deal (after whinging about the conditions for an extended amount of time).

One very possible precondition would be that NZ divest itself of Freedom Air. Air NZ/Norris understand that and have been posturing to try to prevent that (probably in vain). That's part of what the quoted press release is for -- to lay the groundwork for their media spin campaign against the forthcoming commission decisions.

Air NZ won't leave Star Alliance until the QF/NZ deal goes through all the required approvals and those are by no means guaranteed. And even if QF/NZ do consumate their relationship, there are good reasons for NZ to remain in Star Alliance. They'd foster the illusion of competition while QF/NZ would sew up the majority of the market no matter which alliance a pax prefered.


[This message has been edited by Quokka (edited 04-07-2003).]