Air New Zealand makes adjustments to regional schedule

30 May 2016

Air New Zealand makes adjustments to regional schedule

Air New Zealand is making some adjustments to its regional flight schedules reflecting recent feedback from local stakeholders and to meet growing demand on a number of routes.

Earlier this year the airline introduced a revised domestic schedule, taking effect progressively throughout 2016, aimed at enhancing the customer experience for Kiwis and visitors to New Zealand by delivering improved connectivity to domestic and international services and more consistent weekday departure times, particularly for peak morning and early evening business travellers.

Air New Zealand General Manager Networks Richard Thomson says the airline is committed to operating a comprehensive domestic schedule delivering connectivity and consistency while also meeting the key needs of each community.

“The new schedules have been generally well received by customers, although a couple of communities raised concerns around new peak business flight timings.

“A strength of our business is the emphasis we place on consultation and responding to customer feedback. While the response to the new schedule was very positive we have listened carefully to stakeholder and customer feedback and we’re pleased to have been able to overcome some key challenges identified in the following communities”.

Whangarei

From 30 October, the first flight of the day from Whangarei to Auckland (Monday-Saturday) will be retimed to depart at 7.10am – 45 minutes earlier than originally proposed. The new 7.10am service will be available for booking from early June.

Kerikeri

From 30 October, the first flight from Kerikeri to Auckland will depart on weekdays at 6.00am. This will be achieved by continuing to overnight an aircraft in Kerikeri to enable the early morning departure.

Kerikeri is one of the routes benefiting from the replacement of the 19 seat Beech fleet with the larger 50 seat Q300 aircraft, which has allowed the airline to offer customers more lower priced fares. Air New Zealand will operate an additional 10,000 seats between Kerikeri and Auckland in FY17.

Tauranga

Air New Zealand will reinstate an early morning service, departing from Tauranga to Christchurch at 6.05am, and will operate up to 10 new weekly services between Auckland and Tauranga. This is a significant regional growth market and the airline will operate up to 80,000 additional seats to and from Tauranga during FY17.

ENDS

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