Air New Zealand sees higher loads

Air New Zealand saw an increase in its revenue load factor during October, although it was primarily driven by cuts in capacity, while passenger numbers continued to fall.

Capacity at the airline was 10.1 per cent lower for the month, while a fall in passenger volumes of 4.1 per cent saw revenue passenger kilometres fall 6.4 per cent. Load factor increased by 3.3 percentage points to 80 per cent.

The impact was felt particularly on the airline’s long haul services, which saw a decline in passenger numbers of 9.1 per cent, with an 18.3 per cent fall on its Asian and London via Hong Kong services. Volumes on short haul services were down by 3.3 per cent, although a nine per cent cut in capacity saw load factor increase by 4.4 percentage points to 79.6 per cent.