Big summer airline expansion starting, global group expects a busy October

A 787-9 Dreamliner at Air New Zealand's new Hangar 4, which opened last month. Two new 787-9s are due next year. Photo / Michael Craig

Global air passenger traffic was up in August and a global airline group expects to have a strong October showing too.

October is also set to be a big one for Air New Zealand as it starts making more long-haul seats available ahead of summer.

The International Air Transport Association (Iata) said traffic by revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) was up 4.6% year-on-year in August.

“Looking ahead to October, flight volumes are expected to grow by 3.4% year-on-year, supporting continued momentum in global air traffic over the coming months.”

A New Zealand airline group leader said the country may have to wait a little longer to get the numbers up.

“New Zealand’s peak season is traditionally a little bit later in the year,” said Cath O’Brien, Board of Airline Representatives (Barnz) executive director.

Still, she said NZ could expect more airline capacity this summer.

“We’ve got potentially more visitors this summer than last summer.”

Air New Zealand later this month launches its new Christchurch-Adelaide service.

This month also marks the start of the airline’s campaign to have more long-haul seats available until March.

Air New Zealand has said it would have 34,000 additional seats on flights to North America.

The flag carrier expected to operate 1.7 million seats between NZ and Australia from this month to next March.

And possibly later in summer, Air NZ expected to take delivery of two new 787-9 Dreamliners.

Those aircraft are expected some time early next year, as is an Airbus A321neo for short-haul routes such as trips to Australia and Pacific islands.

Other airlines are increasing capacity this summer.

Jetstar is launching its biggest-ever expansion of NZ and transtasman routes.

Its new Hamilton-Christchurch and Brisbane-Queenstown flights will commence next year.

Cathay Pacific is increasing Auckland-Hong Kong services from early December to late March.

And American Airlines, the world’s biggest carrier by passenger numbers, will operate an Auckland-Dallas Fort Worth service from January 5 to March 28 with Flagship Suite options.

Iata said August domestic traffic in Australia measured by RPK grew by just 0.4% year-on-year, well down from 4.4% in July.

Airline capacity in Australia was up 3.3% year-on-year, according to Iata’s air passenger market analysis released today.

RPKs are calculated by multiplying the number of paying passengers by the distance travelled.

Passenger load factors from the Americas to the Southwest Pacific region, which includes NZ, were down 1.5% year-on-year.

Passenger load factor is the percentage of available seating capacity filled with passengers.

Traffic by RPK from the Americas to the Southwest Pacific was up, but the slowest among major international routes serving the Asia-Pacific.

Industry-wide international traffic was up 6.6% year-on-year, and capacity was up 6.5% by RPK.

Most growth was in international rather than domestic travel.

Traffic on European airlines increased by 4.2% year-on-year and made up 25% of global net RPK gains.

North America was sluggish, though, with its carriers up just 0.5% compared with a year earlier.

The United States domestic market in August was down 0.2% year-on-year.

China’s domestic market traffic was up 3.4%, with demand outpacing capacity.

Ipanema beach in Rio De Janeiro. Brazil had the biggest growth among all domestic markets in August. Photo / Stevica Mrdja

Brazil led all major domestic markets with a 12.7% year-on-year increase.

Iata cited Brazilian official programmes promoting tourism for the surge.

Major routes serving the Asia-Pacific outperformed the global average, but Iata said smaller corridors had more modest growth.

International travel from China and Japan to the rest of Asia was up 9% and 11.6% respectively.

The number of scheduled flights worldwide increased 1.7% year-on-year in August.

John Weekes is a business journalist covering aviation. He has previously covered consumer affairs, crime, politics and courts.