Air NZ and Virgin Blue airlines may become partners to fly across the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. First, however, the Transport Ministers in both countries have to agree.

In 2002, Air NZ and Qantas had talks about becoming partners. However, this would have given the two airlines about 85% of the market and this was not fair to passengers. On the other hand, an alliance between Air New Zealand and Virgin Blue would give them 56% of the market so there would be competition. There are now other airlines which fly across the Tasman at the end of their trip from other countries. Emirates, for instance, flies from Dubai to Sydney then on to Auckland.

Virgin Blue is a cut price airline. Meals are not included in the price. Virgin Blue travels more to holiday places like the Gold Coast in Australia. AirNZ is a full service airline. They carry many business class passengers to the main cities.

The two airlines would code share. This means you could book a seat on Virgin Blue but fly in an AirNZ plane. The advantage for the airlines is they could fill planes more easily. The advantage for passengers is that there could be flights to different cities, like Hamilton.

Question to think about

At the moment, Air NZ has about 170 flights a week across the Tasman and Virgin Blue has about 70 flights. Why do so many people travel across the Tasman?