Air NZ long-haul passenger slump continues, led by US, UK

Friday 24th April 2009

Air New Zealand's long-haul passenger volumes continued to plummet in March, led by a 21% slump in numbers on North America/U.K. routes.

The airlines long-haul passenger numbers dropped by 17.2% last month and are 8.8% lower in the financial year to date from the same period a year earlier, the company said in a statement.

Short-haul customers declined by 5.8%, bringing the overall number of people carried to 1.24 million, down 7.6%.

March figures were also affected by the Easter holiday break, a peak travel period, falling in April this year, the company said.

Air New Zealand has reduced capacity by changing schedules, trimming flights and using smaller aircraft, helping curb the decline in load factors.

On short-haul flights, capacity was reduced 7% in March, resulting in a drop in passenger load factor of 0.5 percentage point, while long-haul capacity was trimmed by 12.2% for a load-factor drop of 4.1 percentage points.

Shares of the airline rose 1.9% to NZ$1.09 today and have gained 11% so far this year.

Businesswire.co.nz

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