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Air New Zealand's long-haul passenger load factors were up in July due mainly to peak season holiday traffic from North America and Britain.
Figures showed an overall 1.1 per cent increase to 83.3 per cent on the same month last year for load factors which measures the percentage of available seats filled.
Long-haul loads increased by 2.7 per cent to 83.9 per cent.
On Tasman and Pacific sectors load factors decreased by 2.6 per cent to 76.9 per cent. Domestic loads were up 1.8 per cent to 78.1 per cent.
Other airlines are putting on extra services across the Tasman and Air New Zealand said in its monthly operating report the "market will become increasingly challenging".
Adjusted for foreign exchange movements, group-wide yields for the year were up 6.4 per cent on July 2007.
Again, the biggest gains were on long-haul routes where the annual yield was up 11.5 per cent compared to 6.3 per cent on short-haul routes.
The airline, faced with unprecedented fuel bills, a softening global economy and strong competition reports its full-year profit on Tuesday.
