Covid 19 coronavirus: Air NZ requires face masks on all international flights

Masks have already been required on Air New Zealand domestic flights. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Air New Zealand is beefing up its rules on international flights and is now requiring all passengers to wear masks.

All travellers on domestic flights in New Zealand already have to wear masks due to the country's Covid rules.

Currently, passengers travelling between Australia, Rarotonga, Samoa, South Korea and Tonga are also subject to local government requirements to wear masks while flying.

Air New Zealand chief operational integrity and safety officer David Morgan says the airline continues to proactively review operational processes to keep its passengers, employees and New Zealand safe.

"As Covid-19 cases around the world continue to rise, particularly with new variant strains, we've put this requirement in place to further ensure the safety of our customers, aircrew and broader New Zealand.

"Our customers are already required by law to wear masks inflight to a number of our destinations, so extending this mandate to the remainder of our network provides a further safeguard against any potential spread of the virus. To date our customers have been overwhelmingly supportive of the requirement to wear masks and we thank them for their ongoing cooperation."