Can anyone explain please why it costs about 50% more to fly from New Zealand to London return than it does to fly from London to NZ. It doesn't seem to make any sense to me at all. Same airlines/same days.
Why are we being scammed by the airlines?
Member
Air fares NZ to UK
Can anyone explain please why it costs about 50% more to fly from New Zealand to London return than it does to fly from London to NZ. It doesn't seem to make any sense to me at all. Same airlines/same days.
Why are we being scammed by the airlines?
Member
As an inane exercise I just tried the same flights from Singapore/UK and the opposite, originating in the UK. It costs almost THREE TIMES the price if you originate in Singapore. What on earth is all this about?
Senior Member
Crazy, but it was horrible 8 years ago when we were in Sydney too - it cost over a month's salary to go home for my brother's wedding *shudder* Now we have NZ$5k permanently sat in an "emergency UK trip" bank account..
At the moment it might be worse due to the stong NZ$ though, fares were probably set a while back based on an average-ish exchange rate and now they're reaping the moolah. A bit like petrol companies who react very quickly to rises in oil price and v v v slowly to the opposite.
Member
Its cheaper to buy a one way AKL to LON and then a return back!
Junior Member
it sounds funny,but there might be a kind of economics at work. I mean there are probably alot more flights roundtrip originating outside of NZ. So this would tend to drive those prices down.
It does seem quite silly though.
Senior Member
It must be the joys of supply and demand.
There is simply more competition (at least on the first sector) going from LHR to NZ then the other way around. I know that the price difference holds for Air NZ, but I'm not sure if it also applies to flights routed via Australia or Singapore....
Last edited by girlwithanewf; 3rd January 2011 at 07:18 AM.
Yorkshire Ambassador to New Zealand
I'm pretty sure that the round trip arguement doesn't work, as you're on the same planes/ flights, just in a different order. The currency / tax issue has to be the more important issue.
Senior Member
On the contrary, the tax argument goes the other way around. Fly on 1 March 2011 from the UK to Auckland return on Air NZ (GBP 1002 inc tax - sound like a bargain, suppose there is an up side to a recession...) and you pay a whopping GBP 401 in tax. To the UK from Auckland (return) also on the 1 March, and you pay (NZD 3185 inc tax) only NZD 285 in tax. Airlines do hedge against exchange rate movements, but the implied purchasing power parity of this price differential would be 3:1, which we have not seen for years.
Yorkshire Ambassador to New Zealand
I'm not jsut talking about departure taxes, I'm talking GST, VAT, and corporation taxes. Those are wrapped into the main ticket price. I know that the economics of running an airline are just as complex as the logistics of getting the planes, crew, food, etc in place. Lots of issues running a company with multiple currency and tax systems.
Senior Member
GST in NZ is 15% and in the UK it has just gone up to 20%, so that argument does not work. An airline only pays one set of corporation taxes in the territory where the airline is incorporated, so that can't really explain the differential either. The same price differential also exists with Singapore Airlines, which is HQd in Singapore. It looks like a market price simply determined by supply and demand. There is simply more demand, relative to supply, for flights leaving NZ than then coming here. But this is not a pure New Zealand effect, as you get a similar price differential on the Sydney to London route.
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