Swine flu pushes Air NZ numbers down 25pc

Air NZ's long haul passenger numbers fell nearly 25pc in July, as the swine flu outbreak deterred international travel. Photo / Paul Estcourt.

Passenger numbers are down as much as 24.2 per cent on some Air New Zealand long haul routes as the swine flu outbreak put people off travelling.

The airline carried 1.1 million passengers in July, down 8.4 per cent on the same month last year. But capacity was reduced by 9.6 per cent so the load factor only decreased by 3.2 percentage points.

The airline said 86 per cent of its domestic flights departed within 10 minutes of schedule departure time in July.

Long haul passenger numbers decreased by 16.9 per cent and capacity was reduced by 9.7 per cent on the same month last year.

Passenger numbers on Asian, Japanese, and UK routes were down 24.2 per cent on last July and in response capacity was reduced by 16.2 per cent.

The airline combined flights from Osaka and Tokyo and used a Boeing 777-200 on the Hong Kong to London service.

Group-wide yields for July were down 11.3 per cent on the same month last year.

Short haul and long haul yields were down by 13.1 per cent and 11.9 per cent respectively.

Removing the impact of foreign exchange movements, group-wide yields were down 15.1 per cent.

Yields were higher last year partially due to fuel price related increases.

Passenger numbers were also boosted last year by the World Youth Day, which took place in Sydney .

- NZPA