Meanwhile, I hope we have heard the last about any alliance between Air New Zealand and Qantas, something favoured by Dr Cullen, Air New Zealand's major shareholding minister. This NZPA report suggests we haven't, as it is obviously in the airlines' own interests to form a price-fixing cartel. It has been observed on a number of occasions that the airline business is not an easy way to make profit, given the entangling nature of its web of restrictions and route regulation, usually by the governments that love to own them. While some of the aviation behemoths are being forced to consolidate, notably in Europe, their plight hardly compares with such a blatant anti-consumer move as the Qantas-Air New Zealand alliance.