Air New Zealand is advising customers of potential disrupts and flight changes as winter weather and sickness hits the network at a peak time.
The airline is facing its busiest July school holiday period in two years, with more than 672,000 customers booked to travel over the next two weeks to domestic and international destinations.
This coincides with a blitz of winter weather which is putting pressure on the network.
More than 172,000 customers will be flying on Air New Zealand’s international network alone, including many Kiwis jetting off overseas as routes like Honolulu and Houston get up and running again. Travel across the Tasman is also popular, with the airline back flying to all nine of its Australian ports this week.
Air New Zealand chief executive officer Greg Foran says while it’s fantastic to see international travel ramping up, and a domestic schedule back to 100 per cent of pre-COVID levels, this doesn’t come without challenges.
“We’re excited to get so many customers off to their holiday destinations, but much like other businesses around New Zealand, we’re experiencing higher-than-usual employee sickness. This coupled with tumultuous weather is likely to cause some disruptions across the network over the coming days.
“Our teams are working hard to ensure any disruptions are as minimal as possible, however, as flights are incredibly full over the next few weeks there is unfortunately limited spare capacity to move customers to alternative flights.”
During the next two weeks, it is not only going to be incredibly busy in the air, but at airports as well.
"We understand travel disruptions are frustrating for customers and we want to reassure them we’re doing everything we can to get them to where they need to go.”
To ensure the journey through the airport is seamless as it can be, the airline is encouraging customers to prepare all their travel documents prior to arriving at the airport, and to allow plenty of time to move through check-in, security and get to the gate.
For those travelling around Aotearoa with no baggage, the airline recommends they check in using the Air New Zealand mobile app to avoid any queues at kiosks.
Air New Zealand’s contact centre is also experiencing a high volume of calls. It is recommended customers check the Air New Zealand Travel Alerts page for updates and contact centre wait times.
