1. Air New Zealand Boeing 787. Taken by @martin_avigraphy on Instagram.
2. Air New Zealand Boeing 777-300. Taken by @londonaviation_747 on Instagram.
Air New Zealand have decided to cease all ghost flights following the outbreak of the coronavirus. These ghost flights have become increasingly common in recent times due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus. Usually, they would be quite rare of an occurrence. They’d only be used when there is a gap between two revenue flights, extra demand that results in the airline repositioning an aircraft and when aircraft pulled from service or stored. Recently, Air New Zealand has been bringing stranded passengers back to New Zealand who had been trapped abroad due to travel restrictions. However, many of these flights would leave empty, with no passengers.
The airline was also seeing that the demand for domestic flights has drastically dropped. In terms of international flights, some aircraft were being left abroad in the likes of JFK due to having no returning passengers. In response to this, the Chief Revenue Officer of Air New Zealand, Cam Wallace has tweeted:
‘The @FlyAirNZ team are closing down flights for sale, 7000 in total. This will display on the website throughout the day. New schedules allow us to stop ghost flights which is better for our costs, our staff and the environment. Trying to avoid empty plane pics! @andykirton. ‘
Air New Zealand have decided to cancel almost all of their scheduled flights and start from the beginning and build up as time goes on. The airline has decided to cancel any available scheduled flights for sale and those with no tickets will be reduced or cancelled. Passengers who have booked flights that aren’t full will be on a combined flight. This will help the airline significantly in terms of costs and staff.
The airline would typically have 400 domestic flights a day. However, Air New Zealand have cancelled 95% of their services and have reduced 99% of their flights. Cam Wallace announced to RNZ that they will be using their Airbus a320, ATR-72 and Bombardier Q300 aircraft to carry out their remaining domestic flights starting tomorrow. The Chief Revenue Officer also announced on Twitter that:
’Our @FlyAirNZ revised domestic schedule is out, We will be flying to AKL, WLG, CHC, NSN and DUD only. One or two return services a day, eff 3 Apr. This represents a 95% reduction pre - C19. Demand is down about 99%. @andykirton.’
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