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Air New Zealand saw a further improvement in punctuality during August, with 85.3 percent of flights arriving within 15 minutes of schedule – up from 83.1 percent in July and 81.8 percent for the same time last year. The global average for airline on-time performance was 73.1 percent in August.
Air New Zealand chief operations officer, Ground and In-Flight, Kate Boyer says it comes back to delivering the journey customers expect.
“From a customer’s point of view, it’s pretty simple: get me there when you said you would, and make sure my bag gets there too.
“Those things sound basic, but they really matter. We’ve been working hard across the operation to get more consistent, and while there’s always more we can do, it’s good to see that work showing up in the experience our customers are having.
“August was a good step forward after a challenging July, and our team has done a great job strengthening our performance. It’s encouraging to see that showing up in better results across the network.”
Air New Zealand operated 13,053 flights across its domestic and international network during August.
International services recorded one of the strongest on time improvements, with 80.4 percent of flights arriving within 15 minutes of schedule, up from 74.5 percent in July and 76.2 percent in August last year. Regional punctuality reached 86.8 percent, up from 85.9 percent in July and 82.3 percent a year earlier, while domestic jet services recorded 85.3 percent.
The August result also placed Air New Zealand fourth among Asia Pacific airlines for on-time performance in aviation analytics company Cirium’s monthly rankings.
Weather conditions eased from the winter peak experienced in July, which had almost twice as many weather-affected flights and around two-and-a-half times the weather-related delay minutes of August.
One percent of scheduled flights were cancelled for reasons within Air New Zealand’s control in August, with total cancellations reducing from 2.8 percent in July to 2.5 percent in August.
Alongside its focus on punctuality and reliability, Air New Zealand has maintained a decade-long trend of low mishandled baggage rates. A mishandled bag is when a bag is delayed, damaged or lost, with delayed bags making up most of mishandled baggage globally.
Preliminary FY26 results show 2.77 bags per 1,000 were mishandled, around half the current global average of 4.9 per 1,000, putting it among industry leaders for baggage handling. Across the year, Air New Zealand carried 12.8 million bags, an increase from 12.5 million bags in the prior year.
“When a customer checks in a bag, they expect it to be waiting for them at the other end, no matter where that end destination is,” Kate says.
“We’re very proud of our record, which is strong globally, but that’s little comfort to the customer standing at the carousel without their bag. Every mishandled bag is one too many for the person affected, and we take that responsibility incredibly seriously.”
Maintaining that performance has required continued focus as baggage volumes have increased. Improved scanning and traceability are giving teams greater visibility of bags throughout their journey, while teams across airports, baggage services and operations continue to focus on the handovers, checks and decisions that keep them moving.
“Technology gives us better visibility and helps our teams work smarter, but ultimately this performance comes down to our people taking ownership at every stage of the journey. Our baggage handling teams are some of our unsung heroes – few customers see them, but they take incredible pride in getting every bag where it needs to go because they know how important it is for our passengers.
“Whether it’s an aircraft arriving on time or a bag arriving on the carousel, our customers should be able to trust us to deliver what we promised. That’s the standard we’re working towards every day,” says Kate.
