Air New Zealand is using larger aircraft for more than 350 domestic services this month after better-than-expected demand for Christmas flights.
The airline said it will be adding another 16,000 additional seats to services, which involves "upgauging" flights from an Airbus A320 to the larger A321.
Chief customer and sales officer Leanne Geraghty said the airline wants to make sure everyone can get where they are going this month.
"This will see around 80 per cent of Auckland-Wellington services and around 25 per cent of Auckland-Christchurch services operated by our new and larger A321 aircraft, with 214 seats compared to the A320’s 171," Geraghty said.
"Customers will also get the bonus of in-flight entertainment on these flights.
"Naturally, demand is higher for travel at certain times of the day, for example first thing in the morning. By flying at different times of the day, customers will find more fare options available.
"Demand in a post-Covid world has been far more variable than pre-Covid, with bookings often being made very late and flights selling out.
"We've been adding capacity wherever possible, which makes more seats available at lower fares.
"In November we added more than 26,000 seats to the network for travel in the same month, either by adding new flights or deploying larger aircraft on existing routes.
"We are doing what we can to keep Kiwis connected and have so far sold more than 550,000 seats for under $100 for travel between December and February."
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