News
Air NZ reports soft domestic and long-haul passenger numbers for Q3
October 26th 2026
Air New Zealand (Air NZ) said passengers flown on its domestic and international services fell 1% to 4.2 million in the three months to September 30, compared with the same three-month period in 2025. Read More » The decline was attributed to the number of domestic passengers falling 2.7% to 2.6 million and long-haul travellers dropping 2.3% to 510,000. On a more positive note, passengers on its short-haul network, comprising flights to Australia and the Pacific islands, rose 3.7% to 1.1 million. The overall passenger load factor rose 1.8 percentage points to 84.8% as the airline "managed capacity and demand in response to elevated fuel prices", Air NZ said in a regulatory filing. Domestic capacity, or available seat kilometres, was cut by 2.5% in the quarter as a consequence of "targeted fuel-rice driven capacity adjustments across the network", while the 5.4% drop in long-haul capacity was attributed to the replacement of 777-300ERs on its Auckland-Los Angeles route with smaller 787-9 equipment and reduction in the flying schedule on the route. Air NZ has switched to quarterly reporting of its operational performance, from monthly previously.
