At about 3pm, the first Singapore Airlines flight to Wellington, via Canberra of all places, lands at Wellington Airport. Wellington-boosters, well represented on the Council and the Chamber of Commerce, talk up the first “long-haul” flight to and from Wellington. All of which would be more impressive if it were not for the ratepayers’ money being (secretly – no information on the amounts or terms of these sweetheart deals, no robust cost-benefit analysis etc) used to make it all possible. Were the flights financially self-supporting that would be the best evidence of them being “a good thing”. But they aren’t. That means (a) a presumption against them being “a good thing”, and (b) a likelihood that they won’t survive for long, at least without some permanent subsidy from the long-suffering ratepayers of Wellington. It probably isn’t a subsidy to the giant Singapore Airlines – they’ll probably just manage a normal…
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