{"id":344399,"date":"2026-03-23T23:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T23:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/344399\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T23:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T23:32:07","slug":"air-new-zealand-cancels-four-samoa-flights-cites-rising-jet-fuel-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/344399\/","title":{"rendered":"Air New Zealand cancels four Samoa flights, cites rising jet fuel costs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn making these changes, we have worked to minimise disruption, and affected customers will be re-accommodated on alternative services as close as possible to their original booking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Air New Zealand operates up to 12 flights each week between Auckland and Faleolo.<\/p>\n

Samoans on social media expressed disappointment at the news, with several users highlighting the potential impact on the tourism industry.<\/p>\n

The news follows last week\u2019s announcement from Air New Zealand chief executive Nikhil Ravishankar that \u201cunprecedented\u201d jet fuel prices have led to 1100 flights being cut<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The cuts, which affected about 44,000 customers, mainly involved regional routes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are frequencies that are being reduced across almost every one of our domestic routes, and we\u2019re looking at transtasman,\u201d Ravishankar told Ryan Bridge TODAY.<\/p>\n

Flights to the Pacific and to regional destinations such as Hokitika, Timaru and Taup\u014d were less likely to be impacted, he said at the time.<\/p>\n

Air New Zealand said the cancelled trips \u201crepresent 5% of our total domestic and international schedule and are mainly in lower-demand or off-peak times\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAffected customers will be contacted directly and will experience minimal disruption, with the majority travelling on the same day as their original booking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, the Samoan government announced it would increase airport departure fees to $180 per passenger<\/a>, drawing concern from airlines about rising travel costs.<\/p>\n

International Air Transport Association\u2019s Asia Pacific regional vice-president Sheldon Hee told the Herald: \u201cThe fee increases not only make it more expensive for tourists visiting Samoa, but also add to the travel cost burden of Samoan nationals, and the Samoan diaspora.\u201d<\/p>\n

Figures from the Samoa Bureau of Statistics show New Zealand accounted for 51.3% of all visitors to the country last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIn making these changes, we have worked to minimise disruption, and affected customers will be re-accommodated on alternative…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[68,682,15382,138,12505,28721,16423,802,6562,3011,2678,28372,117,111,139,69,801,5902,13109,80],"class_list":["post-344399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-air","tag-being","tag-blamed","tag-business","tag-cancellation","tag-cancels","tag-cites","tag-costs","tag-flights","tag-four","tag-fuel","tag-jet","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rising","tag-samoa","tag-several","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}