Great thread and topic, I also read the article and was amazed at how clueless the author was. It still beggars belief that some Kiwi's (actually many Kiwis), think anything over about $69 is too much for a one way fare anywhere in NZ, the countless suggestions that somehow Air NZ would make money if every seat was $69.
Take a 171 seat domestic A320, thats $11,799 if every seat sells at $69 (every seat hardly ever sells at off-peak), I doubt that would even come close to covering the fuel cost on a AKL/WLG/CHC/ZQN, let alone airport charges, office leases, ground staff, crew/pilots, not to mention depreciation of a $120 million dollar aircraft that has a finite life.
It would actually do Air NZ justice to publicly release some of this information, like e.g. this is how much it costs to operate between X and X, and this is what every ticket would need to sell for to break even.