Air New Zealand forced to reduce domestic schedules due to weakening demand

Air New Zealand is having to make further cuts to its domestic network over the coming months over what the airline is referring to as a softening in economic conditions in the market. The move comes as the airline also continues to struggle with engine shortages affecting its short-haul Airbus A320 and A321 fleets which are largely deployed on its domestic network.

While the Auckland-based carrier has not yet issued a definitive list of specific routes and schedules that will see the cuts, it has hinted that services between the capital city of Wellington and regional hubs such as Rotorua, Gisborne, and Blenheim were likely to be on the list. The airline has said that it expects the schedule reductions to result in around a 2% drop in available seats across its domestic network between February and June 2025, once the peak summer season in the Southern Hemisphere is over.

Citing the dampening of demand for domestic air travel across the two-island nation,   the airline said it was “responding to the domestic economy and adapting to the changing market while meeting community needs.”

“Like other airlines in Aotearoa, our domestic business continues to be impacted by challenging conditions, including high operating costs and soft domestic demand, particularly across corporate and government customers,” said Air NZ’s Scott Carr,   Air New Zealand’s General Manager for its domestic division. “As a result, we’ve made some changes to our services in the areas where we are seeing the most impact from less flying.”

Carr added that Air New Zealand would work with affected customers to rebook their travel. Around six thousand of the company’s customers will be rebooked on other services as a result of the reshuffling of timetables after February 2025 and what the airline describes as “small changes to the time of their flights”.  

Jordan Tan / ShutterstockThis latest announcement follows other capacity cuts on three other domestic routes that were announced earlier in 2024. In October 2024, the carrier announced that it would be reducing frequencies and capacity on a trio of key domestic routes by flying smaller planes or flying fewer times on each route daily. The affected routes include Queenstown to Christchurch, Dunedin to Wellington, and Christchurch to New Plymouth.

Additionally, the airline had already announced that flights between Invercargill and Wellington would see a downgrading in the equipment used from 171-seat Airbus A320s to 68-seat ATR-72s representing a reduction of 100 seats preflight.

Seth Jaworski / ShutterstockAdding to the carrier’s woes is that a proportion of its narrowbody Airbus A320 family fleet is grounded as they await parts and inspection of their Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan engines. This issue is affecting the available number of aircraft that the airline has at its disposal and reducing operational flexibility.   

As reported by AeroTime in November 2024, Air New Zealand cited aero engine issues as the root cause of a forecasted dip in profits for 2025. In guidance issued by the carrier for the first half of its 2025 financial year (which ends on December 31, 2024), the airline stated that up to six of its A320neo family aircraft as well as four of its widebody Boeing 787s are currently out of service due to ongoing engine-related issues. This number represents around 16% of the airline’s total fleet. 

RELATED

Air New Zealand A320neo diverts to Auckland after mid-air engine problem 

The post Air New Zealand forced to reduce domestic schedules due to weakening demand appeared first on AeroTime.

Go to Source