Looking for more space on Trans-Tasman flights? Air New Zealand has you covered, with the introduction of a new paid seat select option aptly called ‘Legroom’.
For travel from 20 February 2024, passengers will have the option to book the new seat category, which will be available on select short-haul flights between New Zealand and Australia and NZ and the Pacific Islands.
Offering more legroom than a standard economy seat, flyers can purchase a Legroom seat in the forward economy cabin. The new product will be offered as a seat select in travel agents’ GDS.
Meanwhile, Air New Zealand has announced it expects more than a million passengers to fly on its domestic network and another 700,000 on its international network between 15 December 2023 and 31 January 2024.
The busiest day of the year for the airline will be 22 December, when around 50,000 passengers will take to the skies across Aotearoa and overseas.
“Ensuring a smooth travel experience for our customers in the days leading up to Christmas requires a coordinated effort across all our teams, from flight planners to airport staff, pilots, and cabin crew – remarkably this means that nearly 1200 tasks such as loading bags, monitoring weather, and ensuring the weight and balance of the aircraft,” Air New Zealand Chief Operating Officer Alex Marren said.
“Up to 40 people across the airline come together on any given flight to do this and ensure that we deliver our customers to their destinations safely and on-time.”
Unsurprisingly, Kiwis will travel to Australia more than anywhere else this holiday period, with 350,000 customers booked to travel to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and 330,000 customers travelling elsewhere abroad.
“From our frontline airport teams and holiday hosts, to our crews on board to our behind the scenes engineering, baggage loaders, ops planners, supply chain and many others, our teams are doing everything they can to get you to your destination,” Marren said.
“We know that travelling can be stressful for many people, so we want to remind customers to give themselves plenty of time for check-in and getting through airport security.”
The airline asks travellers to be at their gate 30 minutes before departure for domestic flights and 45 minutes before departure for international flights.
Air New Zealand recently launched its Christmas campaign The Great Christmas Chase in the lead-up to the busy holiday period.
The carrier also became the latest airline to onboard SpaceX’s Starlink technology to provide free, high-speed, low-latency inflight internet on domestic aircraft.
Read our interview with Air New Zealand’s Nick Lewis, who won the gong for Most Outstanding Sales Executive – Air at the National Travel Industry Awards (NTIA).
