Air NZ makes further cuts, changes to southern flights

File photo
Air NZ says it has made a small number of schedule changes for travel in May and June. File photo
More cuts are set to hit flights in the South as rising fuel costs continue to affect the national carrier.

Air New Zealand yesterday announced more changes to flights and schedules.

It follows changes announced in the middle of last month, which reduced capacity on flights throughout New Zealand.

Air NZ said yesterday because of the ongoing impact of high jet fuel costs, it had made a small number of schedule changes for travel in May and June.

‘‘These consolidations affect around 4% of flights, but only 1% of total passengers due to travel across this period. We have worked hard to keep disruption to a minimum, with the vast majority of impacted customers still travelling on the same day,’’ the airline said in a statement.

Affected customers were to be notified from yesterday.

Aviation fuel costs had more than doubled since Middle East tension increased at the beginning of last month and they were expected to stay high.

The airline said the changes were relatively small compared with others in the New Zealand market, where some airlines were reducing capacity by more than 10%.

Ingrid Leary
Ingrid Leary
‘‘Like airlines globally, we’re experiencing jet fuel prices that are more than double what they would usually be. This is driving higher costs across the industry and we’ve made further increases to some airfares to help manage this.’’

Taieri and Labour MP Ingrid Leary said the changes were making a difficult situation for Dunedin people even more difficult.

Reductions on Dunedin-Wellington flights and Dunedin-Christchurch flights equated to a reduction of 5% of planned capacity, she said.

The Dunedin-Auckland changes equated to a 3% reduction.

She said it would have a big impact on economic development in Dunedin.

‘‘Changes which had already been made to the flights, and the aircraft, prior to the fuel crisis have made it very difficult for people in Dunedin to operate business,’’ she said.

She said the changes might have been brought about by planes being impacted by bad weather, and engine issues that Air NZ had been affected by for the past few years.

Dunedin Airport acting chief executive Megan Crawford said Air NZ had advised of the further cancellations and schedule changes affecting Dunedin services, driven by the current jet fuel pricing.

‘‘We understand the airline is working through challenging operating conditions and our focus remains on supporting reliable connectivity for the region,’’ she said.

Queenstown Airport sustainability and corporate affairs general manager Sara Irvine said changes affected about 30 services between Queenstown and Christchurch and Queenstown and Auckland in May and June.

Invercargill Airport could not be contacted.

 

 

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