More flights: Auckland, Wellington and Super 14

Media Release
24 May 2006

More Air NZ flights: Auckland, Wellington and Super 14 finals

Aucklanders are starting their business day earlier if Air New Zealand’s domestic travel trends are anything to go by.

From 10 July, Air New Zealand will introduce a new 6am weekday service from Auckland to Wellington and new late night services from Wellington to Auckland following strong demand for these flights.

“Demand is consistently high for the first few Auckland to Wellington flights, suggesting our current first service at 7am is no longer sufficient to meet the growing desire for an early morning start in the capital,” said Air New Zealand Group General Manager, Short Haul Airline Norm Thompson.

“We’re also seeing growth in demand for evening flights from Wellington to Auckland so we’ve added a new last service departing Wellington at 9pm on Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.”

In order to operate the additional flights, Air New Zealand will cancel its 9pm service from Auckland to Wellington on Mondays and Tuesdays, with the last flight now departing at 8.30pm.

The national carrier has also added two extra services between Wellington and Christchurch this weekend to help rugby fans get to Saturday’s Rebel Sports Super 14 finals clash.

Mr Thompson said demand for flights between Wellington and Christchurch had surged following the Hurricanes win over the Waratahs at the weekend.

“As a sponsor of the Rebel Sports Super 14 competition, we’re committed to getting fans to and from the games, after all there’s nothing quite like being there to watch the action unfold. We have a number of Hurricanes and Crusaders fans at Air New Zealand, and I know they’ve been busy finding ways to show their fanatical support for their team this weekend.

“We’ll be closely monitoring flights over the next few days and if demand remains strong, we’ll look at adding more flights,” said Mr Thompson.

Summary of changes as follows:

Rebel Sports Super 14 Finals:
Sat 27 May NZ5801 Depart Wellington 12.00pm Arrive Christchurch 12.55pm
Sun 28 May NZ1430 Depart Christchurch 11.30am Arrive Wellington 12.15pm

Additional Auckland & Wellington services
Mon to Fri NZ401 Depart Auckland 6.00am Arrive Wellington 7.00am
Sun, Wed, Thurs NZ490 Depart Wellington 9.00pm Arrive Auckland 10.00pm

Suspended
Mon, Tues NZ469 Depart Auckland 09.00pm Arrive Wellington 10.00pm

ENDS

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