‘It’s complicated’: Air NZ on routes affected by its 1100 cancellations. Here’s what Stuff has found out

Friday, 13 March 2026

Questions remain over the exact flights affected by Air New Zealand’s cancellations across its domestic and international networks as the airline refuses to release the list.

The national carrier has cancelled 1100 flights between March 16 and May 3 in an effort to consolidate flights as jet fuel prices soar.

Air New Zealand told Stuff that it has not necessarily cancelled the same flight each week e.g. flight NZ000 on Mondays, or the 12.50pm flight to Wellington each day.

Has your flight been cancelled and now you’re missing an important event? Let us know by emailing newstips@stuffdigital.co.nz

CEO Nikhil Ravishankar told RNZ the airline was looking at reducing a small number of international services and said the trimming of long-haul was “fairly negligible” with about three flights affected.

When asked again on Friday in an attempt to allay readers’ worries, the airline said:

“People are being contacted directly by us if they are affected by the consolidation of flights. If you have been contacted by people who are concerned about their flights, it’d be best to point them to our customer care team who can provide specific advice.”

On Thursday afternoon, Air NZ told Stuff that the vast majority of people should hear if their flight is cancelled by midday on Friday.

Passengers will mostly be rebooked for the same day. Those who can no longer take their new flight are eligible for a refund or credit.

What we do know is the cancellations represent about 5% of Air New Zealand’s total domestic and international schedule and are focused on lower-demand or off-peak services.

Routes where there is no frequency to fall back on, have not been touched, the airline said.

'If you think of a port like Hokitika, where we only have two rotations a day, we have maintained that connectivity,“ Ravishankar told RNZ on Thursday.

Invercargill has only one flight most days to Auckland, Taupo has two flights per day, and Rotorua has two flights per day to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch while Gisborne has two flights per day to Wellington.

What is a rotation?

The flights are being cancelled by removing rotations, airline speak for the return flight in and out of a port e.g. AKL-WLG, WLG-AKL

Which flights are affected?

Without a list from Air New Zealand, much of the information is coming from local MPs, mayors and airports.

Stuff has been able to find the following routes affected.

Napier-Auckland - a reduction by an average of seven to eight rotations per week.

Napier -Wellington - an average of three rotations per week.

Kerikeri-Auckland - reduced by six rotations which is on average one service per week.

Gisborne-Auckland - being cut by 24 rotations, about one daily rotation most weeks.

Tauranga-Auckland - by 31 rotations, averaging about one daily rotation most weeks.

Wellington-Tauranga - 21 rotations removed. Roughly three return flights per week cut.

Christchurch-Tauranga - three rotations removed.

Blenheim-Wellington - three flights per week.

Blenheim-Auckland - nine rotations in total.

Christchurch-Dunedin - 15 rotations cut. About two to three per week.

Auckland-Dunedin - eight rotations cut. Around one to two per week.

Wellington-Dunedin - nine rotations cut. Around one to two per week.

Auckland-Nelson - two to three return flights per week cut. Potentially up to 10 per week after the April peak travel period.

Wellington-Nelson - About five return flights per week cut.

Christchurch-Nelson - two to three return flights per week cut.

New Plymouth-Auckland - 26 return flights over seven weeks, averaging three to four fewer services a week.

New Plymouth-Wellington - one flight on April 5.

New Plymouth-Christchurch - one service at the end of April.

Rotorua-Christchurch - one return service cancelled on April 19.

Hamilton-Wellington - three to four flights cancelled each week until early May.

Hamilton Airport CEO said “For context we currently have 70 flights to Wellington each week, so the impact is relatively minor with minimal impact on passengers. There is no impact at all to 97.5% of our flights.”

Several MPs have said the airline will maintain full capacity during the April school holidays (Friday, April 3 to Sunday, April 19).

Which flights are not affected?

Timaru will not be affected by these changes, nor the Gisborne-Wellington service or Napier-Christchurch.

The Taupō-Auckland route has not been cancelled which MP Louise Upston said was “good certainty” for Taupō.

Flights from Rotorua to Auckland and Wellington are unaffected.