Air New Zealand outlines its strategy for the regions

Air New Zealand's chief revenue officer Cam Wallace. Photo / Supplied

Air New Zealand says it will continue its strategy of flying bigger planes to a limited number of regional airports.

The airline, which came under fire for withdrawing from Kapiti airport this year, says it is adding 630,000 seats to its domestic network over the next year.

Chief revenue officer Cam Wallace said prices had been dropped for regional flights sold overseas and this had enabled more people to get to more places around New Zealand.

Air New Zealand dominates the domestic market and in the past five years it has grown by about 26 per cent, equating to 2.5 million seats.

''We understand the feedback, in that some people think we should fly to every airport - that's not our view," said Wallace. "We can better serve regions through bigger aircraft to a smaller number,'' he said at the Trenz tourism showcase in Dunedin.

The airline would continue to work with Tourism New Zealand on pricing strategies to get more overseas visitors to the regions.

He also announced five more A320 flights a week between Dunedin and Auckland from October to help tourists and business travellers.

"When we talk about domestic and we talk about bringing tourists into NZ, we are very fixated on getting people not only to Dunedin, Christchurch, Auckland and Queenstown, but right across the regions.''

Air New Zealand wanted to invest more, and wanted to see large events focused on off-peak or shoulder periods.

"Whether it's the Queenstown marathon or the Hawke's Bay marathon or whether it's the wine awards, or whatever it may be, we're very fixated on doing more events because they do drive great economic success for us."

Wallace said his airline had 83 per cent of local capacity but a higher proportion of the industry profit pool.