There has been a lot of media talk around domestic airfare prices in the past week after RNZ ran a story about a Tauranga man claiming it was cheaper to book a flight to Los Angeles than it was to fly to Wellington.
The fact that his story wasn't actually backed by any actual facts seemed to be lost on news outlets that reported the story - there were direct flights from Tauranga to Wellington for cheaper that he was claiming, and trying to compare the cost of a sale fare to Los Angeles seven months from now to the last few remaining seats on a direct flight to Wellington on the last day of school holidays where two of the three available direct flights were already fully sold was hardly comparing apples with apples.. But that didn't stop the outrage from both ill informed radio hosts and listeners alike who think that airfares are all incredibly expensive and that the national carrier is ripping us off.
I thought it was the perfect time to dust off my Air New Zealand timetables to look back 30 years.. And bring back the horrible memories of flying in the Fairchild Metroliner III!
Since I like comparing apples with apples I thought I'd compare prices from 1995 and 2025 for direct flights between Tauranga and Wellington. It's worth noting that for indirect flights from Tauranga to Wellington via Auckland or Christchurch that a change to Air NZ pricing in 2024 means these airfares are 50% more expensive for the same fare buckets than they used to be, something I wrote about earlier in the year. Previously the cost of direct and indirect flights were aligned, and it's a change that I strongly disagree with especially with the reduced frequency of flights into some regional destinations that is forcing passengers to opt for indirect routing and pay more for the inconvenience.
In 2025 across the 14 different fare buckets on offer prices range from $79 up to $430. It's important to note that F class fares are Grabaseat Greenlight fares are only available on the Grabaseat website and will not show on the main Air New Zealand website.
In 1995 the cheapest fare between Tauranga and Wellington was a Super Thrifty for $151 - that's $245 in today's money using the Reserve Bank's Inflation Calculator. A super thrifty fare had to be booked at least 10 days before travel and a thrifty fare 7 days. A regular economy fare cost $250 - that's $405 in today's money.
Today's airport charges for passengers along with Civil Aviation processing and security screening (not required on a regional flight less than 90 passengers) add up to around $20 - 25 for a typical flight, with that cost also due to increase on the 1st July 2025. GST is also now 15% compared to the 12.5% that was in place in 1995.
This chart really does demonstrate how affordable the cost of flying is today, with 8 of the 14 fare buckets (which will represent somewhere around 50%-60% of the total seats sold on each flight) being cheaper in 2025 than the lowest priced $245 (in 2025 dollars) fare that was available on that route in 1995.
The price of a full Y fare is also pretty similar with the 1995 pricing - with the $405 (in 2025 dollars) is virtually identical to the $430 that it costs today for a direct flight once the increased GST and airport passenger levies and Civil Aviation processing fees are included - despite the operating costs for the airline having increased astronomically over the past 30 years.
