Air NZ doing well despite no monopoly

Stephen Franks has a good post on how well Air New Zealand is doing, despite its dire warnings that they would be in trouble if they could not codeshare with Qantas, creating a near monopoly.  Stephen’s firm helped Wellington Airport win over the Commerce Commission.

Monopolists, or aspiring monopolists, often make dire claims to back why they should keep a monopoly.  I recall Telecom at one Commerce Commmission hearing spending hours arguing that allowing higher speed broadband would result in 70,000 households losing broadband Internet access.  Of course almost all speeds are now unconstrained and there has been nne of the doom and gloom predicted.

I’m generally for less not more regulation.  But monopolies and free markets don’t sit that well together so I’m pretty comfortable with anti-monopolistic laws so consumers get choice.