KEY POINTS:
Air New Zealand has had a stellar January, with passenger numbers up 5.8 per cent from the same month last year.
It carried just over a million passengers last month, compared with 948,000 in the previous January.
Numbers on long-haul routes grew by 11.7 per cent, despite price adjustments for fuel and other operating cost increases.
The company said its North American loads were "particularly pleasing" at 90.2 per cent, up 3.4 percentage points, with the Auckland to Vancouver service introduced in November 2007 performing well.
But its passenger load factor for the Asia/Japan/UK market fell 0.8 of a percentage point, which the company attributed largely to the addition of two more services from Auckland to Shanghai last November.
Short-haul flights, which include domestic, Australian and Pacific Island destinations, registered increases of 4.6 per cent. Some 822,000 people flew short-haul with the airline last month up from 786,000.
The company announces its interim results on Friday. Shares dropped 4c yesterday to $1.78.
