Air New Zealand reduces schedule, looks to lease additional widebody aircraft

Air New Zealand announced (11-Aug-2022) it is taking measures to protect the travel plans of its customers as sickness levels continue to cause disruption. Over the next six months, the carrier will operate a reduced schedule of 1.5% fewer seats than originally planned. Most customers who experience a service change will be transferred to another flight on the same day for domestic travel, and for international travel, on the same day or a day either side of their original booking. Where customers cannot be accommodated within these timeframes, they may change their booking online, opt into credit or request a refund. Customers with changes will start to see them from 11-Aug-2022 and will be automatically transferred to another service. Air New Zealand CEO Greg Foran stated: "We're pulling out all the stops to minimise disruption and provide surety for our customers over the next six months. We have rehired or brought on more than 2000 pilots, airport staff, cabin crew, contact centre and engineers, and we're going as fast as we can with recruitment and training". Mr Foran added: "We're also exploring options to lease a crewed widebody aircraft for the busy summer period… at the moment we're stretched to capacity and making sure our customers are able to travel is our top priority. The lease of an additional crewed aircraft may help us achieve that". Air New Zealand's domestic and international schedule will be operating at 90% of pre-Covid capacity for the next six months. [more - original PR]