Thousands of passengers to be impacted by further Air NZ domestic cuts
Tuesday, 3 December 2024
Air New Zealand is making ‘minor’ changes to its domestic schedule.
It has not said which routes are being changed but that Wellington will see the most changes.
The changes will be applied from February and June 2025.
Six thousand Air New Zealand customers will be rebooked on services next year as the airline makes some “minor” changes to its domestic and regional schedule.
The airline has not said which routes will be affected, saying the schedule changes will be made on Monday, December 9 and will result in 2% fewer seats on the domestic network between February and June 2025.
A spokesperson for the airline told Stuff Travel Wellington will see the largest changes to the flying schedule which reflected the softened demand for flights in and out of the capital.
Have you been affected by Air NZ’s schedule changes? Email us at travel@stuff.co.nz
“The majority of customers impacted will have small changes to the time of their flight. Six thousand customers will be rebooked on an alternative service.”
In October, Air New Zealand slashed capacity on three routes and changed the times of a fourth.
Just two days prior it announced it would no longer fly between Invercargill and Wellington from January 19, 2025.
That was attributed to global engine maintenance issues putting aircraft out of service, coupled with a softening of demand domestically.
General manager domestic Scott Carr noted that the airline has been responding to the domestic economy for months and this announcement is a continuation of that need to adapt.
“Like other airlines in Aotearoa, our domestic business continues to be impacted by challenging conditions, including high operating costs and soft domestic demand, particularly across corporate and government customers. As a result, we’ve made some changes to our services in the areas where we are seeing the most impact from less flying. We understand these changes will affect some of our customers' upcoming travel plans and as always, we’ll work with everyone impacted to rebook their travel,” he said.
“These reductions not only allow us to more appropriately respond to the level of demand we are experiencing, but they also give the airline a small amount of resilience to improve recovery options in the event of a flight disruption on our regional network. We will continue to monitor domestic demand and will review the schedule from July onwards closer to the time.”
Customers with flights on these routes between February and June 2025 will be contacted directly with alternative options if their flight has been impacted. Customers do not need to contact Air New Zealand.