''Those of you who travel through Auckland International or Auckland domestic on Friday night will know these are pumping bars rather than havens of peace and quiet," he told the CAPA New Zealand Aviation and Corporate Travel Summit.
Gray said the airline was listening to feedback from passengers and the travel industry.
''We are working very closely with AIAL (Auckland Airport) to identify additional space if possible for current lounge but more importantly we're working on a feasability study to build a second international lounge.''
Work was already underway on tripling the size of the regional lounge at Auckland domestic.
It was part of a nationwide strategy to overhaul the lounge network that would include expanding the Wellington regional lounge, renovating the domestic lounge there and building a new regional lounge at Christchurch.
''We acknowledge that the growth in loyalty and growth in our airline has caught us a little by surprise in regards to our lounge capacity,'' said Gray.
The travel boom over the past few years has meant more passengers have earned points to qualify them for access to lounges and there's also more business class travel at Air
New Zealand at partner airlines which can use them, including Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines.
Gray said the airline hoped to have plans finalised for the new international lounge within the next two years and there would be a new domestic lounge in the new domestic terminal planned for completion within the next five to seven years.
Gray said the main challenge the airline faced was getting enough planes into service following the Rolls-Royce engine problems hitting many of its Dreamliners
Today the there were four Dreamliners and a Boeing 777 grounded because of problems.
He said the Dreamliner problem would last for at least another 12 months.
''Our struggle right now is delivering consistent on time performance we've been hit by a number of factors beyond our control,'' he said.
