(12 August 2022, 10:40 +07)
Air New Zealand will operate a reduced schedule
of 1.5 percent fewer seats over the next six months as sickness
levels with crew continue to cause disruption.
Most customers who experience a flight 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 those timeframes, the airline says they can change their
booking online, opt into credit or request a refund.
Air New Zealand Boeing 787-9. Picture by Steven Howard of TravelNewsAsia.com
"Like many airlines around the world, we've been
ramping up our operation at a time when COVID19 and the flu
continues to impact the aviation industry. Looking at the
disruptions our customers and staff have faced over the past five
weeks, we've made some adjustments to reduce short-notice
cancellations in the months ahead," said Greg Foran, Air New
Zealand Chief Executive Officer. "While we did factor sickness into our ramp up
plan, we've seen the highest rates of crew sickness in over a
decade. We see these challenges continuing not just for crew, but
for our whole operation, and so we're making proactive changes to
address them."
According to Mr Foran, reducing the number of flights means
the airline will be able to have crew on standby to cover illness,
which has not been possible lately.
"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 2,000 pilots,
airport staff, cabin crew, contact centre and engineers, and we're
going as fast as we can with recruitment and training. We're also exploring options to lease a crewed widebody aircraft for the busy summer period. We know customers
want the Air New Zealand experience, and that's what we want to
deliver too. But 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 is expected to operate at 90% of pre-COVID19 capacity for the
next six months.
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