Catherine Stewart Tauranga City Councillor

Jetstar have announced their new provincial cities to their existing domestic routes. Napier, Nelson, New Plymouth and Palmerston North will join Jetstar's Auckland and Wellington flights schedule.

Unfortunately, Tauranga did not get the green light as one of Jetstar's new destinations, which surprises me given that Tauranga is one of the fastest growing cities in New Zealand and also given that our landing fees are very competitive when compared to other regional airports.

I am surprised that Tauranga, Rotorua and Hamilton have all been overlooked as one of these cities would have provided a good regional link for Jetstar and improved competition and connectivity for the people living in this region.

Tauranga is not totally off the radar as Jetstar will add further regional airports in the future.

I hope Air New Zealand will still bring in the lower domestic air fares that have been bandied about in the media. It often costs more to fly Tauranga to Auckland than it does Auckland to Sydney. As fuel prices have dramatically decreased over the last year, it would be good to see this reflected in lower airfares.