July school holidays set to be a busy travel period for Kiwis

July is almost here and with that, school holidays, a time when families across the motu jet around the country or overseas for a break.

Half a million Kiwis are booked to fly domestically during the school holiday period and this is only counting those flying with Air New Zealand.

School holidays will run from Saturday, July 1 to Sunday, July 16 and travel demand across Aotearoa during this time has been “huge” according to the airline’s chief customer and sales officer Leanne Geraghty.

For this reason, the airline has added 45,000 additional seats compared to the same time last year.

Where were most Kiwis travelling? Queenstown, according to the airline.

Queenstown is currently the most popular destination on the New Zealand network during the school holiday period.

Nearly 70,000 seats have been booked in and out of the city from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch alone.

Internationally, more than 230,000 seats have been booked for the school holiday period, Air New Zealand reported.

As expected, Australia is a firm favourite during this time. Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane are set to be the most popular international destinations during this time. Singapore and Nadi, Fiji round out the top five.

“There are more than 230,000 customers booked to travel internationally with Air New Zealand and our teams are looking forward to connecting Kiwis with the world and welcoming visitors from around the world to Aotearoa,” Geraghty said.

In anticipation of the bump in demand, Geraghty said the airline was taking a proactive approach by increasing seats, and staff numbers and enabling more customers to use self-serve processes.

For those who are yet to plan a school holiday trip, Geraghty said the airline still had capacity across both domestic and international networks.

“Anyone keen to embrace spontaneity and book a last-minute getaway should get in quick before seats sell out.”

Geraghty said the goal was to “provide customers with the smoothest travel experience possible”.

Those who attempted to get away during the 2022 July school holidays will likely be hoping for a smoother travel experience this time around.

Last year, the school holiday travel involved “horrendous” queues, stressed staff and many delayed and cancelled flights, largely due to Covid-related staff shortages and sickness.