Coronavirus: Air New Zealand launches more flights in Covid-19 level 2

Monday, 11 May 2020

An Air New Zealand Q300 aircraft lands at Nelson Airport (first published in May 2020).

New Zealand's skies will become a little busier from Thursday when the country enters alert level 2 on Thursday, but air travel is still a long way from normal.

On Monday afternoon, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand would move from level 3 at 11.59pm on Wednesday night.

At alert level 2, domestic travel will be permitted, including for tourism, although travel should not be for the purposes of attending large events or conferences.

'Regional airports who have not seen an aircraft for six weeks will suddenly see an aircraft - but it's nothing like it was pre-Covid,' said aviation expert Irene King.

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Cargo has been an important lifeline for Air New Zealand during the coronavirus pandemic.

Air New Zealand would already know which aircraft it would use, which pilots would be flying and which flight attendants were needed from Thursday.

'It doesn't actually take that much time to get 20 per cent of your fleet back and going,' she said.

'They'll just be so delighted to get the dollars again, and they will see what the market looks like - and obviously if the demand is there, they'll put on capacity.'

Air New Zealand would operate at about 20 per cent of its normal domestic capacity in level 2, compared with about 3 per cent currently.

From June 1, Air New Zealand will fly from Auckland to Blenheim, and to Dunedin, as well as Wellington to Dunedin, said Air New Zealand head of networks Scott Carr.

Flights from Christchurch to Hamilton will start from May 18, followed by flights to Hokitika (May 25), and Tauranga (June 1).

The airline's schedule for additional routes was only available up until June 7, Carr said.

Extra routes and frequencies will be reintroduced according to demand, including services to Taupō and Timaru.

Air NZ chief executive Greg Foran said last week that alert Level 2 would see the return of flying to the likes of Queenstown, Invercargill and Blenheim in the South Island and Rotorua, Gisborne, Palmerston North, New Plymouth, Hamilton, Whangarei and Kerikeri in the north.

'This comes on top of current flights to support essential service travel between Auckland and Christchurch, Wellington, Tauranga and Napier, as well as between Wellington-Christchurch, Wellington-Nelson and Christchurch-Dunedin,” he said.

But he warned that even when the country leaves level 1, there would be fewer flights and reduced frequencies to all domestic destinations.

He also warned bargain-hunters that Air New Zealand would not be able to offer its normal cheapest fares at alert level 2.

King said life would remain very tough for Air New Zealand at level 2.

'There's total market uncertainty, and it looks like the airfares they've put on the market aren't really meeting what consumers expected, there's quite a bit of negative consumer response to them.'

Disgruntled passengers have been left feeling 'offended' and 'blackmailed' by Air New Zealand's handling of cancelled flights, accusing the airline of 'double dipping' by forcing people to book more expensive flights.

'The airlines are their own worst enemies - they've treated us so well for so many years to expect dirt cheap airfares, and they have been dirt cheap, that we expect them to continue like that,' King said.

'People don't realise that the world's changed for aviation - it's a really challenging, difficult business at the moment, plus you've got the constraints as to how many you can carry, so you can't even get to break-even load factors.

'These are commercial businesses, and at the end of the day Air New Zealand does have a Government guarantee but it doesn't mean that it can't go broke.'

On March 20, the Government agreed to loan Air New Zealand up to $900m in two tranches over two years, as long as the airline met a range of conditions.

'There will be a lot of very grey haired people at Air New Zealand, but it's pretty devastating too for the rest of the aviation industry. What's happened to Air New Zealand will happen to those regional airlines as well, and they trade on a knife edge profitability and they've got smaller aircraft, and the social distancing rules apply to them as well.'

Sounds Air Aviation Maintenance Base at Omaka Airfield, Blenheim. SCOTT HAMMOND/STUFF

Sounds Air chief executive Andrew Crawford said the airline was feeling a bit more optimistic with level 2 on the horizon.

Sounds Air's 10 aircraft flew to destinations in New Zealand that otherwise did not have an air link, such as Blenheim to Christchurch, Blenheim to Paraparaumu, Wellington to Westport and Wellington to Taupō.

It made just six flights during level four, but will be flying morning and night during level 2.

'We can be a little bit more optimistic because we're flying nine and 12-seater aircraft, so it doesn't take a lot to get them half full or a bit more - as opposed to 80-seater aircraft where you need a lot of people to get it half full,' Crawford said.