Air New Zealand is warning customers of potential disruption and flight changes over the school holiday period, as the blitz of winter weather and illness hits the network at a peak time.
The next two weeks will bring the busiest July school holiday period in two years, with more than 672,000 customers booked to travel to domestic and international destinations.
Kiwis looking to escape from the winter blast are behind the biggest traveller numbers seen at Auckland Airport since 2019.
Air New Zealand chief executive officer Greg Foran says while it’s fantastic to see international travel ramping up, and a domestic schedule back to 100 percent of pre-Covid levels, there are challenges ahead.
"We’re excited to get so many customers off to their holiday destinations, but much like other businesses around New Zealand, we’re experiencing higher-than-usual employee sickness. This coupled with tumultuous weather is likely to cause some disruptions across the network over the coming days.
"Our teams are working hard to ensure any disruptions are as minimal as possible, however, as flights are incredibly full over the next few weeks there is unfortunately limited spare capacity to move customers to alternative flights."
Air travel and airports are going to be "incredibly busy", with more than 172,000 customers flying on Air New Zealand’s international network alone.
Kiwis will be jetting off overseas to Honolulu and Houston, as well as across the Tasman, as the airline goes back flying to all nine of its Australian ports this week.
Travellers are advised to prepare travel documents prior to arrival and allow plenty of time to move through check-in, security and walk to their gate, to ensure a smoother journey.
Auckland Airport provides a 'family lane' through the border processing areas to make journeys as stress-free as possible during the holidays.
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