Warnings issued over misleading airfare ads in March

The National Party’s alarmed by comments from Air New Zealand’s boss that show just how little regard the airline has for the Commerce Commission.

“Comments like ‘this is all about big names, big headlines’ prove how much the head of the national carrier cares about the people the airline’s supposed to serve, “ says National Party Transport spokesman Roger Sowry.

Air New Zealand and Qantas are both being prosecuted for misleading advertisements, prompting the defence from CEO Ralph Norris during a radio interview this morning.

“The Commerce Commission’s charged with the weighty task of deciding whether to green light the proposed Qantas deal.

“From those comments today, it would seem Air New Zealand’s already questioning the role and jurisdiction of the Commission,” says Mr Sowry.

“The traveling public should be very worried about this latest twist, given that Air New Zealand subsidiary Freedom Air was fined $10,000 for a similar breach in November.

“To make it worse, the Commerce Commission warned other airlines about this type of advertising back in March, but it would appear no-one took any notice.

“The Australian Government’s made it clear it plans to push the Qantas deal through, so there’ll be growing political pressure on our Commerce Commission to do the same,” says Mr Sowry.

“There’s also mounting public opposition to the deal, more than 750 people have so far signed the petition National’s been running on its <http://www.noqantas.co.nz> web-site,” Mr Sowry says.

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