Air New Zealand expects to carry around 850,000 customers across its domestic and international networks over the upcoming school holidays, with Queenstown, Sydney and Rarotonga emerging as the most popular destinations.
Between 24 September and 11 October, more than 520,000 customers are expected to travel domestically and almost 330,000 internationally. The busiest domestic day falls at the start of the break, with more than 33,000 customers flying on Friday 25 September, while more than 32,000 are expected on both Friday 2 October and Friday 9 October.
To meet demand, the airline has boosted capacity on several key routes compared with the same period last year – seats between Auckland and Sydney are up 23 per cent, Auckland–Queenstown is up 10 per cent, and Auckland–Brisbane is up 12 per cent.
Air New Zealand chief operations officer – ground and inflight, Kate Boyer, said the school holidays were always a busy period across the network. “We’ll have families heading away, kids flying on their own to see grandparents, people travelling for some big events, and plenty of Kiwi making the most of the break,” she said.
Close to 150,000 customers are travelling to and from South Island favourites Queenstown, Nelson and Dunedin over the break. Across the Tasman, more than 170,000 customers are flying to and from Australia, led by Sydney, then Brisbane and Melbourne. Trans-Tasman demand continues beyond the school holidays with the Bledisloe Cup in Sydney on 17 October, for which Air New Zealand has added close to 1,000 seats, including two extra return services between Auckland and Sydney.
More than 50,000 customers are heading to the Pacific Islands, with Rarotonga the top pick ahead of Nadi and Apia, while Singapore leads the long-haul list ahead of Japan and Los Angeles.
Boyer said teams had been preparing for weeks to sustain the airline’s recent on-time performance through the busy period, and urged customers to check cabin baggage allowances before travelling, noting economy passengers should keep their main carry-on within the 7kg limit.
The airline is also bringing back two school holiday favourites for younger flyers: the Kia Ora Kids in-flight magazine and its Plane Spotter’s Guide, a free downloadable guide aimed at helping kids identify aircraft by size, wings, engines and sound.
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