Air New Zealand cancels select international services for May - June

Air New Zealand announced today that the softening of forward bookings on some international routes due to a downturn in demand has resulted in the airline making one-off cancellations of some services for May and June.

The cancellations represent approximately one percent of Air New Zealand's total international flights scheduled for the two month period - some 3.3% of total available capacity (as measured by available seats per kilometre) on the airline's international network.

Last week, the airline noted a 5-10% decline in forward bookings for the Japan and Hong Kong routes and some softening in the North American market.

Since then forward bookings on these routes for the period to the end of June 2003 have dropped further, which has made it necessary for the airline to consolidate some services.

The routes affected are Auckland - Hong Kong (where bookings are 15-20% less than for the same period last year); Auckland - Japan (where bookings are 10-15% less than for the same period last year); and Auckland - Los Angeles (where the forecasted increase in demand due to the withdrawal of United Airlines from New Zealand, has not been realised.

Accordingly, Air New Zealand has cancelled a total of 21 return services as follows:

Auckland/Los Angeles - Wednesday flights: 14 May, 21 May, 28 May, 4 June; and Sun 8 June;

Auckland/Hong Kong - Monday flights: 12 May to 30 June inclusive (8 return flights);

Auckland/Nagoya - Thursday flights: 29 May, 05 June, 12 June;

Auckland/Kansai - Tuesday flights: 03 June to 1 July inclusive (5 return  flights).

Air New Zealand said that customers due to fly on these services will be rebooked on the next available flight to the same destination and notified of the changes to the schedule by their booking agent.

Air New Zealand's international schedule would normally involve the following number of flights per week on these routes: Auckland to Los Angeles 17 times per week; Auckland to Hong Kong daily; Auckland to Nagoya three times per week and Auckland to Osaka daily.