Air New Zealand has reported a 9.2% increase in passenger numbers for the month of October. Revenue passenger kilometres rose 6.1%, capacity rose 2.4%, and group load factors increased by 2.9%.
However, on a month-on-month basis, passenger volumes have declined by 20%. Short-term overseas visitor arrivals fell by 1% October, impacted, the airline says, by the strong New Zealand dollar deterring tourists.
Short haul passenger numbers rose 10.2%, with revenue passenger kilometres up by 12.6%. Domestic load factor rose by 6.6% points to 83.4% on a capacity increase of 3.6%.
Long haul passenger numbers were up 2.5%, with North America/UK traffic up the most by 5.4% on a capacity increase of 7.3% although load factor fell 1.4 points to 80.3%.