Airline passenger numbers rise

Photo / Paul Estcourt

Air NZ carried 7.4 per cent more passengers during September than in the same month last year as short-haul passenger numbers rose 8.2 per cent.

The load factor in the domestic market rose by 5.9 percentage points to 82.7 per cent on a capacity increase of 0.8 per cent.

The load factor on Tasman and Pacific routes increased five percentage points to 85.2 per cent even after capacity was increased by 2.8 per cent.

Long haul passenger numbers rose 1.9 per cent with the load factor rising by three percentage points to 89.7 per cent on North America to United Kingdom routes.

Overall, revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) rose 5.5 per cent and capacity rose by 0.7 per cent.

The group load factor increased by 3.9 percentage points.