Air New Zealand gives Kiwis second bite at $1 flights today

Air New Zealand's Grabaseat promotion sold out in 32 minutes. Photo / Getty Images

It's been a bad day for Air New Zealand investors but Kiwi travellers are getting a second shot at $1 domestic flights at 2pm.

It took just 32 minutes for Kiwi travellers to snap up 500 Air New Zealand domestic flights priced at $1 this morning.

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The $1 flights were offered to 12 destinations across the North and South islands.

Because of the popularity of the sale Air New Zealand launched more $1 flights at 2pm.

"Dollar deals available this afternoon include seats in both directions for Auckland-New Plymouth, Auckland-Gisborne, Nelson-Wellington, Christchurch-Wellington and Christchurch-Invercargill," Air NZ said.

Shortly after the first deal was launched at 9am, Air New Zealand's Grabaseat site was struck by technical difficulties as a result of high traffic demand.

The most popular route, from Dunedin to Wellington, sold out within two minutes.

The Grabaseat website struggled to handle the demand. Image/Grabaseat.

Air New Zealand chief revenue officer Cam Wallace said the insanely low fares attracted huge interest and unprecedented level of traffic.

"Our booking site did slow for a short time this morning under the weight of a phenomenal number of hits.

"For those who want to be first in line when the next big sale drops, we recommend downloading the Grabaseat app, and signing up to our email sales alerts."

Grabaseat is also offering cheap international fares.

Travellers looking for an international getaway can grab $99 one-way flights to Noumea and Niue, $299 one-way fares from Auckland to San Francisco and Houston, and 90 return trips to Shanghai from $649.