Air New Zealand announces new services for winter school holidays, coinciding with Jetstar's return

June 18, 2020

The move comes as the national carrier also announced today it is bracing for a $120 million loss this financial year.

Air New Zealand is upping its domestic flight services for the upcoming winter school holidays, coinciding with Jetstar's return. 

The airline made the announcement today, revealing its 787-9 Dreamliner would operate between Auckland and Christchurch during the July break.

Its Dreamliner will operate 16 return passenger services between Auckland and Christchurch between 1 July and 19 July. 

Scott Carr of Air New Zealand says the airline will also add capacity to all of its other main routes – from Auckland to Wellington, Dunedin and Queenstown, as well from Wellington to Christchurch, Dunedin and Queenstown - through either extra flights or by upgrading to larger aircraft.

Air New Zealand's announcement coincides with the date a rival airline arrives back into the country. 

Earlier this month, Jetstar announced it had updated its domestic flight schedule, which comes into effect on July 1. It will be flying 75 return flights per week to five destinations around New Zealand, returning to approximately 60 per cent of its normal domestic schedule.

Mr Carr says Air New Zealand is also offering more capacity over the school holidays for its Auckland-Queenstown route. 

“We’ll also be adding a number of extra services on our regional routes in the week leading up to the school holidays including to and from Blenheim, Dunedin, Gisborne, Hamilton, Invercargill, Kerikeri, Napier, New Plymouth, Nelson, Palmerston North, Rotorua and Tauranga," says Mr Carr.

An NZX report out today has also revealed Air New Zealand expects to post over $100 million in losses during the 2020 financial year amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The airline said while it was able to restart its domestic network under Alert Level 1, revenue and earnings from the flights are "significantly lower than expected" than before the Covid-19 outbreak.

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