Qantas ups flights between Australia and New Zealand

Qantas has increased its flights between Australia and New Zealand and increased its pressure on Air New Zealand and the Government to sell a stake of the airline.

Qantas is tipped to be close to buying a 25 per cent stake in Air New Zealand after four months of negotiations. Aviation analysts and travel agents described Qantas' increase in flights as a dramatic move made with one eye on Air New Zealand.

Qantas will increase its flights to Sydney from Auckland and Christchurch by 39 to 58 each week from October 27.

The move is designed to increase frequency rather than capacity, as most flights will be replaced with the smaller 737 planes instead of 747s.

The flights exceed those announced by Air NZ in May. It increased Auckland-to-Sydney flights by eight to 28 a week and put a 767 on its daily Christchurch-to-Sydney flight. The Qantas flights will coincide with Freedom Air's transtasman expansion when it drops domestic routes in October.