Air New Zealand adds 2000 extra seats for Taylor Swift fans heading to Australia

Taylor Swift brings the Eras Tour to Australia, but not New Zealand, seeing thousands of New Zealanders rush to buy Australian airfares. Photo / Terence Rushin, Getty Images

The demand from Kiwi Taylor Swift fans heading across the Tasman has forced airlines to add extra capacity to Australia, after the US singer announced she would not be performing on this side of the Ditch.

Air New Zealand says they have added 2000 additional seats on trans-Tasman services out of Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland for the beginning of next year.

Chief customer officer for the airline Leanne Geraghty said that they saw an immediate spike in interest with the tour announcement.

“When tour dates for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour were released last week, we saw a surge in demand for the final day of our Tasman sale with more than 3,500 Kiwis booking flights to coincide with concert dates,” she said.

The Eras Tour arrives in Australia in February 2024, with two additional shows added in Sydney and Melbourne earlier this week.

Following the extra demand for services, the carrier said it acted swiftly to make sure there was no ‘Bad Blood’ from music fans.

The airline said it has repurposed service number NZ1989 (Auckland to Ohakea) for Taylor Swift ticket holders, in honour of her fifth studio album.

Additional flights to Melbourne and Sydney go on sale Friday June 30, at 2pm.

When asked the airline did not have indicative prices for these new fares. The Air New Zealand website shows an adult return fare between Auckland and Sydney at around $612 return over the weekend of Swift’s first Eras show.

“During high demand periods, fares increase so we can manage a small supply of seats for last minute travel,” said Geraghty.

The Australian tour dates kick off on February 16 2024 in the Sydney Accor Stadium and concludes on 23 February in the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The combined audience is thought to be over 450,000 seats, to be filled by Australian and New Zealand fans.

Taylor Swift ticketing chaos

Those booking airfares will have to hope the ticketing situation goes more smoothly than for event sellers Ticketek.

Earlier this week a reported 800,000 fans logged into the booking portal for Eras tour dates in Australia. With some fans claiming they were stuck in the ‘lounge’ online waiting room for hours. All tickets were gone after in three hours and 43 minutes, Ticketek confirmed.