Air New Zealand is gearing up for a bumper summer, adding more flights to its domestic schedule to deliver 180,000 extra seats between November 2017 and March 2018, compared with the same period last year. The extra flights will use the airline’s existing domestic fleet to meet traveller demand over the summer. Air New Zealand expects to sell up to a million seats for less than $100 over the same period. Key destinations to receive a boost include the busy Auckland and Queenstown route where there’ll be nearly 60,000 extra seats. The airline is planning to add an average of eight additional return services a week to and from the resort town. An average of six additional return Auckland-Christchurch services per week will deliver more than 40,000 extra seats on the route. Moving from two to three daily A320 jet services on the airline’s Auckland-Dunedin route on Tuesday and Thursday will see three jet services operate six days a week resulting in capacity on the route growing by 10% or 12,000 seats, and Auckland-Wellington will gain an extra 10,000 seats. There will also be significant seat capacity increases across Air New Zealand’s regional network as follows:
- Auckland-Nelson 16,500 extra seats
- Auckland-Tauranga 13,800 extra seats
- Auckland-Napier 12,800 extra seats
- Auckland-Palmerston North 7,300 extra seats
- Auckland-Kerikeri 4,900 extra seats
- Auckland-New Plymouth 2,800 extra seats
- Auckland-Taupo 2,100 extra seats
Air New Zealand’s Chief Revenue Officer, Cam Wallace, says the additional seat capacity is in response to growing customer demand. “We’re responding to growing customer demand with 180,000 more seats across our domestic ports this summer. Not only does this create more flight options for our customers, it means more of our lowest fares will be on offer. In fact we expect to sell up to a million seats for less than $100. “We are committed to operating a comprehensive schedule throughout New Zealand and have invested significantly in delivering a service which will benefit both visitors and locals over the summer months.” The additional flights are being progressively released for sale.
| An Air New Zealand release || July 31, 2017 |||
