Jetstar accuses Air New Zealand of sabotage

Less than a month after launching its domestic flights in New Zealand, Qantas subsidiary Jetstar has launched an attack at rival Air New Zealand, accusing the airline of spreading rumours about the budget carrier’s aircraft and staff standards.  

In a report by the Herald Sun, Jetstar’s chief executive Bruce Buchanan said Air New Zealand had spread rumours of Jetstar aircraft being “old and unserviced”, its “pilots poorly trained” and flights overbooked.

The accusations come after reports of Jetstar’s entry into New Zealand involving a spate of late and cancelled flights and rude staff. Buchanan said the airline took responsibility for the poor experiences had by some of its customers and said “for that we’re aplogetic.”

Air New Zealand shorthaul airline group general manager Bruce Parton hit back at the rumour claims.”Surely, Mr Buchanan doesn’t expect Kiwis to believe that we are responsible for his Aussie airline’s woes?,” he said.

Parton added: “We didn’t dream up his draconian check-in rules, his schedule that often cannot be met, his endless schedule changes and his decision to operate ill-equipped aircraft to Queenstown that cannot achieve the same punctuality as Air NZ’s fleet.”

By Alice Terlikowski  ·  July 6th, 2009 at 12:24 pm

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