More than 20,000 people have cancelled flights with Air New Zealand these school holidays as widespread travel disruption continues.
Chief executive Greg Foran said about 57,000 customers had contacted the airline over the past week, with many wanting to change their travel plans.
“It’s not just Covid, it’s the winter flu and weather disrupting plans,” he said.
The airline has extended its recently reintroduced Covid Flexibility Policy until August 31 in response. This enables customers to change their bookings or opt into credit for any reason without being charged to do so.
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The July school holidays have been the national carrier’s busiest period since the start of the pandemic, with some 130,000 customers travelling on domestic and international routes this weekend alone, Foran said.
Last weekend, travellers were met with an array of disruptions, including massive delays, flight cancellations and weather woes.
The airline brought back its Covid Flexibility Policy on Saturday after being bombarded with complaints.
The airline said it had heard from “a large number of customers who are falling sick with Covid or other winter illnesses and can no longer travel”.
Air NZ was also seeing higher-than-usual employee sickness, which led to flight cancellations.
“There’s no doubt it’s a challenging time for everyone,” Foran said in a statement Friday. “It’s been more than two years of hard mahi, and unfortunately, we’re not out of the woods yet.”
Staff were chipping in wherever needed to minimise disruption, he said.
“We’ve had our office-based staff helping out cleaning aircraft and assisting at our airports in peak times to support customers and our frontline.”
A surge in demand has led to widespread travel disruption internationally as airlines, airports and ground handlers struggle to replace staff laid off during the pandemic. In New Zealand, sickness and bad weather have exacerbated issues.
Foran said New Zealand has “avoided the worst” of what has been dubbed “airmageddon”, with most passengers getting to where they want to go.
“This extra flexibility will give customers a few more options to defer travel to sunnier times,” he said.
Under the Covid Flexibility Policy, customers booked to travel between now and August 31 can hold the value of their fare in credit for 12 months via the Air New Zealand app or website. They can also use the app or website to change their flights to another date without attracting a change fee. However, they may have to pay more if their new flight is more expensive.
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