Queenstown Lakes Mayor Glyn Lewers. Photo: RNZ / Niva Chittock
Cuts to Air New Zealand regional routes will mean less money circulating in the economy of larger cities, the Queenstown Lakes District mayor says.
The national carrier has announced more trims to regional flights, including swapping out larger jets for much smaller twin engine turboprop planes on some Queenstown and Dunedin flights - meaning there will be 100 fewer seats on a flight.
In some cases, morning departure times will be later and return flights will be earlier in the afternoon, compressing any day trips.
Air New Zealand also announced it was ditching direct flights from Invercargill to Wellington from January.
Queenstown Lakes District mayor Glyn Lewers told Checkpoint it had come as "a bit of a surprise", and he was disappointed by the announcement.
Cuts to Air NZ routes could crush business - Queenstown mayor
He said same-day business operations would no longer be able to occur in either Christchurch or Wellington, which meant that businesses would be less likely to leave Queenstown for work.
"It probably means more work virtually, and less money circulating in the economy of Christchurch and Wellington," Lewers said.
And while Zoom "has its function and it has its functionality to a certain point", Lewers added, without face-to-face interaction, business activity would not occur as efficiently.
"If you want innovation and actually a generation of ideas ... we're a social animal, being personal and talking face-to-face has its value."
He said it would mean local businesses would do more work in Queenstown, and "probably not share the love amongst the rest of New Zealand".
"I know we've got a lot of high net worth and board directors that live here that want to do business in Wellington," Lewers said.
"It probably won't happen as often as it could."
He believed Air New Zealand was only thinking short-term, and did not seem to have a medium- or long-term plan.
"I'm sure they're aware they've got a rather aggressive Trans-Tasman Australian airline that's looking to expand.
"They're certainly doing that in the Auckland sector, international sector.
"So they've got to be a little bit careful because loyalty only goes a certain length of time."