Emirates increases Tasman route seats

Capacity on the Tasman will be boosted from August as Emirates increases its seats on the Auckland-Melbourne route with the arrival of new aircraft.

The airline will replace the current Airbus A340-500 with the latest Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, which will mean an extra 672 seats a week being available in each direction.

The flight links to Dubai.

Emirates' New Zealand manager Chris Lethbridge said it would be a welcome upgrade on the route.

"We have been experiencing very high load factors for some time and the bigger aircraft will take some of that pressure off."

He said the same aircraft switch would occur later in the year on the Auckland-Brisbane-Dubai route.

Emirates' other Auckland service, via Sydney to Dubai, is operated by an Airbus A380 superjumbo.

House of Travel retail director Brent Thomas said any additional transtasman capacity would help keep fares down on what was already one of the most competitive routes in the world.

"Airlines have had significant pressure put on their yield management over the last 12 months and it's expected that they'll try to recover that but it's a fine line between putting the yield up and cutting off demand," he said.

"As soon as you put a little more capacity in something's got to give and we think that's price so we still think there will be a lot of great pricing on the Tasman and this will certainly help that."

Thomas said January bookings for all airlines through his agency were up significantly on the same month last year, reflecting a lift in consumer confidence.

SINGAPORE AIR POSTS PROFIT

Singapore Airlines has turned around hefty losses in the first half of the past year to record a net profit of SG$404 million ($403 million) in the quarter ending in December.

Losses in the two previous quarters totalled SG$466 million.

During the quarter, there were increased frequencies to a number of destinations, including Auckland, while flights to Athens and Dubai were reduced.