Air New Zealand carried the highest number of passengers in December since Covid-19 air travel restrictions were imposed in March. The higher passenger numbers on the month were attributed to more travellers on domestic flights, as the number of passengers on international flights remained a fraction of total passengers carried in December.
The airline carried 881,000 passengers in December, up by 28pc from 690,000 in November but down by 51.7pc from 1.82mn in December 2019, said Air New Zealand. The airline was bailed out by a NZ$900mn ($634.3mn) loan from the government following a significant slide in revenue when air travel collapsed during the spread of Covid-19.
There were 847,000 domestic travellers in December, down by 27.3pc from 1.16mn in December 2019 and above the 671,000 in November, the airline said.
Only 6,000 passengers that embarked on the airline's long haul flights in December and this was split evenly between flights to Singapore and Japan, and to destinations in the Americas and the UK.
The last official data for New Zealand jet fuel consumption were for July-September, which showed higher fuel consumption for domestic flights, while fuel use for international flights remained subdued.
| Air New Zealand passenger numbers | 000 | |
| Period | Passengers | Passenger load factor (%) |
| Dec' 20 | 881 | 62.8 |
| Nov '20 | 690 | 58.7 |
| Dec '19 | 1,824 | 85.1 |
| Jul-Dec 2020-21 | 4,003 | 53.7 |
| Jul-Dec 2019-20 | 9,040 | 84.3 |
| Source: Air New Zealand | ||
