Trans-Tasman plane plans stall

A Firstline investigation has revealed that a proposal to reclassify trans-Tasman travel as "domestic" has hit problems, and may never happen.

Two years ago the Prime Ministers of Australia and New Zealand said they were aiming for a "domestic-like" experience when flying across the Tasman.

But the plans have hit some turbulence.

It's claimed making trans-Tasman travel domestic would reduce fares by at least 20 percent.

“If it came off, that would have been a good thing for the travellers because it probably would have made it a bit easier and saved a bit of time,” says Flight Centre’s Mike Friend.

Just over two years ago Kevin Rudd and John Key announced a range of initiatives to make Tasman travel "near-domestic".

But more than two years on what has happened?

3 News requested documents updating progress from the department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under the Official Information Act earlier this year.

But the request was refused because the briefings are confidential and "no public interest in this information was identified, which would be sufficient to override the reasons for withholding it".

Given that there were more than 2 million trips across the Tasman in the last year, some would argue there is a public interest.

So we requested the information from MAF and Customs and received 40 reports with more than 160 parts blacked out.

“I think the processes we have now are vastly improved on what we had back in 2009,” says Auckland Airport’s Craig Hughes.

The reports reveal a range of measures including ‘Smartgate’ have been successfully introduced and helped to significantly speed up the process.

But a proposal from Jetstar to use domestic terminals for trans-Tasman flights appears to have been ditched. The reasons why are blacked out in the reports.

Firstline has also uncovered big delays in the x-ray transfer project.

That would see x-rays of your bag being taken in Australia, assessed while you were flying back to New Zealand, and if you had no risky goods you could walk straight out of the airport terminal.

The documents reveal that plan was meant to be running by the end of 2010.

It's now hoped to be in place next year but there's no guarantee it will ever be a reality.

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