Air New Zealand is set to launch two new routes to Brisbane at the end of this year while also expanding capacity on its Christchurch and Auckland trans-Tasman services.
The major expansion of the airline’s flights across the Tasman Sea follow the airline’s announcement last week that it would be ending its trans-Tasman alliance with Virgin Australia following changes to the market dynamics on such services.
Among the two new routes are a four-times-weekly service between Queenstown and Brisbane, and a five-times-weekly service between Wellington and Brisbane, which are set to take off on December 18, 2018.
Meanwhile, the airline’s existing trans-Tasman services out of Christchurch will be getting an additional 35,000 seats, a capacity increase of about 15 per cent. This frequency increase will entail double-daily flights to Melbourne and Brisbane on peak days of the week, along with double-daily flights to Sydney on Monday and Friday, starting October 28.
Air New Zealand’s flights out of Auckland are also getting 125,000 additional seats in the form of a new morning flight to Melbourne targeted at business travellers, additional evening flights to Brisbane and a new flight to Sydney in the middle of the day.
Seats are now available to book on all additional routes.
The trans-Tasman alliance between Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia is set to officially end on October 28, 2018.
