Again, I don�t love the idea of paying $460 for a domestic Y fare (even less so on a WLG-CHC ATR flight), and it�s not often I do, but if all flights are chocka, then I will begrudgingly accept every flight being $460 is the tough reality (especially at this time of year). If I really need to get from A to B then I�d rather pay $460 for the last seat than not have a seat.

If price is an issue but you have time up your sleeve (looking at you uni students), there�s options like WLG-HLZ as well. For bookings a week or two out, I�ve sometimes done this at less than half the cost of WLG-AKL (though I appreciate this isn�t always practical).

When my 2 lads were at Otago, I simply purchased 4-8 (or more) P class FlexiRefund one-way fares around the �likely� travel dates, and then just progressively cancelled the ones not needed as the dates refined. A bit of a �brute force� solution and of course not for everybody. It also meant AirNZ effectively had a zero interest loan from me until I cancelled�.

I had a little chuckle when I looked at the photo of the reporter enjoying her time in Europe whilst complaining about the few hundred dollars it costs to fly to her (probably) parents $5M home in Queenstown.
I can't afford to fly to Europe - so maybe I'll make an article about that... It's just ridiculous.

I had my WLG-AKL return last weekend with $510 flexichange fares but it's not the price I have the issue with. While it's not a cheap airfare I know it's the reality of travel, and the $460 Y fare need to be put into some context with a full Y fare from WLG-AKL was $260 in 1995!

My issue is that for a few weeks now literally every seat on every flight has been full Y at $460. Why does that need to be the case? Qantas have multiple flights tomorrow from SYD-MEL that are $976 in economy but also have a number of flights for $362, and the 22:00 flight for $299. I feel it's a case of the RM team deciding that they can simply can get away with charging $460 and the fact they'd prefer to have empty seats rather than selling those remaining seats at a lower fare bucket.

She's also waaaay less risk averse than I am.

I will assume she's booked a China Eastern flight because they're normally about the cheapest carrier around. Now there is nothing wrong with them as an airline, but you literally couldn't pay me to fly on them from LHR - PVG right now since they fly over Russia. In the current world we live in the last thing I'd want would be a medical or tech divert into Russia and then the possibility of having stamps or anything related to Russia in my passport because that has some pretty major implications right now.

I've got a Ukrainian visa in my passport from my visit to Kiev and Chernobyl in 2017 and in recent years I've noticed the interest this gets from literally every immigration person who looks at my passport as they flick through the pages and suddenly stop. This hasn't created any issues because of the date, but any records of visiting those countries these days can have major implications on your ability to travel freely to many Western countries.

LHR to FCO (for argument's sake) on 27 Dec appears to be between $633 and $1733 one way

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.

Foran said earlier in the year that external costs (ie airports, security etc) was $62 excl GST on a WLG-AKL flight.

He also said pretty much any seats sold under $200 are loss making - but clearly theis is going to vary by route.

A pilot on here can correct me but the A320s burn about 2.5 tonnes going AKL-WLG and at an assumed purchase price of US$80 barrel,
that�s about US$1250 in fuel costs alone, never mind the cash cost to purchase more fuel than that to cover reserves, alternates etc. So at NZ$11,800 revenue incl. GST you�re looking at 20%-40% in fuel depending on how much is loaded. Those economics clearly only get worse the longer the sector if you stick to this belief of a $70 fare cap

Add in the fact that most of the NZ public not only have the perception that tickets shouldn�t be more than $70, they also expect airlines to cover all of their out of pocket expenses for accomodation during weather and engineering disrupts. Years ago I remember weather was excluded but Air NZ seem to be quite accomodating, and provide hotel accomodation if delayed mid journey - even for weather disrupts.
$250 per night and $90 per person for meals.
So much for travel insurance..

There are so many costs airlines are burdened with, it�s no wonder they struggle

I'll say one thing for AirNZ: they are very generous when it comes to compassionate fares.