Mike's Minute: If you want to travel, be prepared to pay for it

Author: Mike Hosking,
Publish Date: Tue, 1 Nov 2022, 9:48AM

Which bit are we surprised about? Air New Zealand tells people to book early because fares are going up. Headlines scream how unhappy we are because fares are going up.

Be as unhappy as you want, things ain't changing.

We have a bit of experience around airfares at the moment. We have a family member looking to get home from Europe. The ability to get a seat, far less wince at the price, has been a problem for weeks.

We have another family member looking to get a partner here for Christmas. Unless they have $9000, it isn't happening. That, by the way, is America to New Zealand at Christmas.

What is happening is very simple and complaining about it solves nothing.

Christmas has always been a pricey time of year. Why we thought post -Covid might be different, I have no idea.

As regards Europe, we have sat on websites waiting for tickets to come up from cancellations. They do but they cost anywhere from $4000 to $12,000 and they are gone within minutes.

We booked a trip next year to the east coast of the United States. I won't tell you what it cost, but it's amazing.

But in that purchase is the key to all of this, very few people are forced to travel; most do it because they want to.

All we are dealing with here is a desire to do something and the psychological or emotional hurdle as to whether they can bear the cost.

Look up Alan Joyce's speech he gave last week about what is required to get a plane out of the desert. It's a lot of people, a lot of old equipment put on a scrap heap, with a lot of new equipment to replace it and a lot of hours of testing.

God knows what it costs, but it's months’ worth of work for one plane.

It's Economics 101, demand is outstripping supply. It's outstripping it by quite a lot. And if you believe Heathrow it will be several years before it's sorted.

Not a lot of people are actually flying. It's a year today since the borders opened for Australia. They are still 70 percent down on the number of trips they took pre-pandemic.

So, to be blunt, what you are hearing is complaining from people who have enough money to fly, but don’t like the fact it's no longer cheap.

Welcome to the new world order.