Air NZ increasing Hawaii flights

Surfers at Oahu's North Shore, Hawaii. Air NZ this morning said it is increasing services to Hawaii, Bali and other parts of the Pacific.

Air New Zealand is stepping up services to popular beach holiday destinations, increasing capacity on its Auckland to Honolulu route, on Pacific Island routes and operating a third season of its Auckland to Bali service next winter.

The airline will operate four services a week between Auckland and Honolulu from June 16 to October 25 next year, moving to five services a week over the peak June 30 to july 27 period.

Air New Zealand group general manager New Zealand and Pacific Islands Cam Wallace said Hawaii continued to prove popular with customers, especially those with families.

"Hawaii is an ideal school holiday destination as it's almost a full day behind New Zealand meaning there's no difficulty in adjusting to a different time zone," Wallace said.

Since Hawaiian Airlines launched services to Auckland six months ago and were matched by a capacity jump by Air New Zealand, travel to Hawaii has jumped 74.4 per cent, according to Hawaii Tourism Authority figures.

Air New Zealand has announced it will also operate a third season of its popular non-stop Auckland to Bali service next year and increase capacity on the route by 40 per cent.

The twice weekly 2014 seasonal service between Auckland and Denpasar will operate from May 31 to October 19. The service will be bolstered to three flights a week over the most popular period of July 1 to October 12.

Overall capacity on Pacific Island routes will also increase by 7.1 per cent over between April to October next year.