Air New Zealand will reduce more flights between late July and late October, citing volatile jet fuel prices as the reason for the schedule changes.
The schedule adjustments will affect both Air New Zealand’s domestic and international networks. The changes apply to travel between July 27 and October 24.
Air New Zealand said it had made “the difficult decision to undertake a further round of schedule adjustments.”
“Taking this approach now gives customers as much certainty as possible ahead of their travel, rather than making changes closer to departure.”
Air New Zealand said it had targeted those “consolidations” to minimise disruption for customers.
“There are still millions of seats available to be booked both around New Zealand and into and out of the country.”
“Customers whose updated flight doesn’t suit their plans can choose a refund or credit,” the airline said.
“Customers who don’t hear from Air New Zealand can be assured their flight is operating as scheduled.”
Meanwhile, NZ Airports chief executive Billie Moore said data analysis showed flights on some regional routes in April and May were already down 10% compared with the same period a year earlier.
Of the latest round of cuts, she said it would likely amount to an overall capacity reduction of about 3–4%.
“Air New Zealand’s clearly making an effort to get in touch with each airport,” Moore said.
However, Moore said that was not necessarily useful in determining the broader scale of the overall reductions.
She said some regional routes had already been under pressure for years.
Domestic routes served by the de Havilland Q300 (Dash 8) turboprop were down 27% from 2019 through to May last year. Some of that decline was likely due to upgauging, as services shifted from Q300 aircraft to the airline’s larger 68-seat ATR 72s.