Planes ready, but no one wants to fly

By LOUISA CLEAVE and CHRIS DANIELS

Airlines have the flights ... but people don't want to be on them.

Travel agents say they have had little demand for flights on December 31 and January 1.

"I haven't booked anybody on December 31, but I have on days either side," said Karen Dawson of Budget Travel in central Auckland.

"Most people are a bit cautious about flying."

Most airlines say their computer systems are ready for New Year's Day.

A group comprising the Airways Corporation - which runs New Zealand air traffic control - Air New Zealand, Ansett New Zealand, the Civil Aviation Authority and Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington Airports, said in October that it would be safe to fly.

The group said airlines and airports had extensive contingency plans as part of their daily operations, and unplanned New Year disruptions would be treated the same way.

Air traffic was usually light around the New Year, and the same pattern was expected this year.

House of Travel managing director Chris Paulsen said the predicted stampede for air travel over the New Year had not happened.

"There is little change from a typical year, when families and friends travel to be together over Christmas and New Year," he said.

"Wholesalers who block-booked space for the period to popular destinations such as Fiji and Australia had to release it early because it was not being booked."

Another Auckland travel agent said nobody wanted to fly on New Year's Day.

"They don't want to be in the air in case they drop out of it," he said.

Air New Zealand has cancelled many domestic and some international flights because of the low demand.

But spokesman Cameron Hill said demand was higher on some routes, which the airline suspects may be because of people trying to "double hit" midnight by crossing the international dateline.

"Honolulu, Nadi, Rarotonga ... all of them offer double banger opportunities for seeing in the New Year.

"We put on an additional flight from Auckland to Rarotonga on the standard January 1 timetable."

Air New Zealand and Qantas have flights leaving the country in the late hours of New Year's Eve, and say they are between 50 and 70 per cent full.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation has urged countries to audit all air traffic control systems before New Year's Day.

Some airlines are re-routing flight paths to avoid flying over countries which may have computer problems. States of the former Soviet Union, parts of Africa and central Asia are causing the most concern.

Ansett Australia will stop all domestic and international flights over a 13-hour period into January 2000 because of low travel demand.