Mon Jun 28, 2004 10:05 pm
The real difference is that, particularly in the UK and Europe, you will go to a travel agency and buy a holiday package through a tour operator. The tour operator will generally have a contract with an airline to carry their passengers.
In Australia and New Zealand, to my knowledge people are more willing to plan a holiday themselves (i.e. organise flights and accomodation separately). Where there are package deals, these are often sold through Qantas or Air New Zealand themselves.
That being said, Flight Centre in New Zealand had organised to charter an Airwork 737 for flights to Fiji, but the plan fell through when they ran into difficulties getting the requisite government approvals.
Basically the reason we don't see the number of charter operators here as opposed to Europe or to a lesser extent North America is because of differences in the market. Further with the prices being offered by Air New Zealand, Virgin, Air Pacific, among others, I doubt there would be any real need for a European charter type operator
V/F
[Edited 2004-06-28 15:14:56]