Christopher Luxon is praising Air New Zealand's willingness to partake in a market study into the price of domestic airfares.
Last month, Consumer New Zealand called for the market study after the national carrier hiked its long-term prices for domestic routes.
That comes as a market study into New Zealand's retail banking industry is carried out, while earlier Commerce Commission research found major issues in the country's grocery sector.
Air New Zealand has said it is "happy to open the books" should a market study be undertaken.
Luxon, the former chief executive of Air New Zealand, said he received feedback from taxpayers about the price of domestic airfares.
"As you've heard from Air New Zealand itself, it's open to doing and participating in a market study," the Prime Minister told AM on Tuesday.
"At the moment... the Commerce Commission's working on airport charges and making sure they're fair for airlines as one of their key cost inputs.
"We're very much focused on the retail sector but wouldn't be averse to looking at it in due course, and it's good to hear Air New Zealand saying they'd happily participate in it too."
Luxon was asked whether he still received perks or discounts from Air New Zealand that had carried over to his role as Prime Minister.
"Oh, look, those were part of previous employment arrangements but my focus is on making sure that we have a good competitive sector in airlines at the moment and there's a lot more work that needs to happen there," he said.
"[I'm] not getting into any of that, I'm on Air New Zealand planes all the time with my work and I don't have a lot of time to go travelling and on holiday with Air New Zealand, sadly," Luxon added.
Discussing a potential market study into domestic airfares with the NZ Herald earlier this month, Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran said he would be "fine" with one.
"Air fares were a topic that were on people's minds - like pricing in many sectors - but airlines probably get more attention than others. The discussion around airfares has not surprised me in the slightest.
"I'd be quite happy to open the books up. We know all these costs down to three decimal places because this is our business - we live it every single day," Foran told the Herald.
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