The changes covered travel between July 27 and October 24.
The airline said in a statement today the jet fuel crisis and need to manage fuel availability network-wide were reasons for the schedule changes.
“Taking this approach now gives customers as much certainty as possible ahead of their travel, rather than making changes closer to departure.”
Air New Zealand said it targeted those “consolidations” to minimise disruption.
“There are still millions of seats available to be booked both around New Zealand, and into and out of the country.”
Affected customers were being notified this week.
“Customers whose updated flight doesn’t suit their plans can choose a refund or credit,” the airline said.
“Customers who don’t hear from Air New Zealand can be assured their flight is operating as scheduled.”
There was no suggestion any routes would be abolished.
Domestic routes
NZ Airports chief executive Billie Moore said data analysis showed flights on some regional routes in April and May so far were already down 10% on a year earlier.
Of the new round of cuts, she said it was probably an overall 3-4% capacity reduction.
“Air New Zealand’s clearly making an effort to get in touch with each airport,” Moore said today.
But that was not necessarily helpful in ascertaining a bigger picture of the overall reductions, she said.
Moore said some regional routes had been under strain for years.
She said domestic routes the de Havilland Q300 (Dash 8) turboprop served were down 27% from 2019 to May last year.
Some of that likely reflected upgauging, or moving from Q300s to the airline’s larger 68-seater ATR 72.
Data from aviation analytics firm Cirium showed weekly seat numbers on ATR 72s were up 1.3% to 74,200 over the same period.
The airline’s narrowbody jet weekly seat numbers were down from 123,000 to 111,000.
The Cirium data showed weekly domestic seat numbers overall were down from 251,000 pre-Covid to 225,200 a year ago.
An Air New Zealand ATR 72 approaching Hawke’s Bay airport in 2022. Photo /Warren Buckland
Nelson Mayor Nick Smith told The Press that 191 flights to the Nelson region had been cut.
He said the changes were effectively an extension of schedule reductions made in March, soon after the Iran-Israel-US war started.
Air New Zealand also ditched dozens of flights into Dunedin.
The Otago Daily Times said 50 return flights from Dunedin to Christchurch would be cancelled, mainly from Monday to Thursday afternoon.
It said 23 Dunedin-Auckland return flights would be cancelled, mainly afternoon rotations on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Air New Zealand said the new schedule changes for July-October started being rolled out yesterday.
The airline said changes would be completed by the end of this week.
John Weekes is a business journalist covering aviation. He previously covered consumer affairs, crime, politics and courts.
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