Neu: 2002-01-27 Contents of this issue:
1. Internet Booking Focus 2. Birds Disappear ======================================================================== January 27th, 2002 1. Internet Booking Focus: Air New Zealand aims to lift Internet ticket sales to up to 15 per cent of its business and is boosting its Internet service by offering discounts of up to 12 per cent on some domestic fares, writes James Weir in today's Wellington Dominion. But the new cut-price fares announced on Friday, may end up a bone of contention with travel agents because they will be cheaper than agents can offer. Agents will not earn any commission on the new discount Internet tickets, even if they do sell them. The new low-price fares on the main domestic routes between Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch, come just a fortnight after Air New Zealand lifted domestic fares by 5 per cent. Trans-Tasman fares also rose earlier this month, the second rise in three months. Air New Zealand's new low fares can only be booked through the Internet. A return flight from Wellington to Auckland would cost $178, (plus levies), about $21 less than the traditional lowest fare - a 10.5 per cent discount. The discount on an Auckland to Christchurch flight is even bigger, about 12.5 per cent, with a $218 Internet fare. If the "embryo stage" Internet booking system proves popular with customers Air New Zealand said it "will look at extending it" to other domestic routes. Air New Zealand aims to increase Internet sales to as much as 15 per cent of its business within 18 months, from present levels of "a few per cent". 2. Birds Disappear: While biological conservationists are warning Niueans about the dangers of overhunting flying fox fruit bats (pteropus tonganus), two more Pacific islands bird species appear to be extinct, says the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in Honolulu. The quack of the Marianas mallard and the whistling call of the Guam broadbill have not been heard on Guam since the 1980s and biologists have concluded that both species are extinct. "It's unfortunate," said Robert Beck, acting chief of the Guam Department of Agriculture's aquatic and wildlife resources division. "We've lost something that evolved in the Marianas," he said, referring to the large duck. The mallard once inhabited Guam, Tinian, Rota, Saipan and other islands of the Marianas island chain. The bird was listed as endangered by the Fish and Wildlife Service in 1977. This was due to excessive hunting and loss of wetland habitat said Anne Badgley, regional director for the Fish and Wildlife Service's Pacific Region. The broadbill, a small fly catcher, was put on the endangered list in 1984, after pesticide use, disease and predators reduced its population. The brown tree snake, which arrived in Guam in the 1940s, is probably the major factor contributing to the extinction of the broadbill, which was last seen in 1984, Beck said. Efforts are ongoing to re-establish other bird species, including the Guam rail and the Marianas crow. ( Various/ PINA Nius Online). __END__
