Long haul numbers down

Air New Zealand carried 16.4 per cent fewer long haul passengers in August from a year ago.

But the airline carried 4.2 per cent more domestic passengers and reduced capacity by 3.8 per cent to increase the load factor on domestic flights to 76.3 per cent. Overall, the airline carried 924,000 passengers in August, down 3 per cent on the same month last year.

Demand fell 10.7 per cent but capacity was cut by 13.4 per cent so the group load factor rose 2.4 percentage points.

Capacity on the long haul Asia-Japan-Britain route was reduced by 24 per cent, which enabled load factors to remain in line with last year at 79.6 per cent, despite a 24.1 per cent drop in demand.

Load factors on North America-Britain routes were also similar to last year, with demand reducing by 8.6 per cent on 7.9 per cent less capacity.

- NZPA