Seeing as its repeat day, where people seem to be litigating their perspective again for some reason...I have no problem whatsoever with Treasury's strict financial return on investment calculations but there are serious dividends that the government will miss out on in the share of PAYE, approx. $300m every year, income tax and social cost to Kiwi's as another airline would likely price gouge hapless Kiwi's.
The Government has received BILLIONS of dollars of tax revenue and PAYE revenue from AIR over the period of Treasury's analysis.
Our dear fiend Marilyn assures us the free market knows best and another airline would step in to provide the necessary competition to ensure domestic airfares were reasonable, yeah right, time for a Tui.
The put option Marilyn refers too is a necessary evil to ensure stability and reliability of transportation within the N.Z. economy which the N.Z. Govt also benefits from.