Air New Zealand doubles down on Houston route

Air New Zealand is ramping up its new Auckland-Houston route faster than anticipated as it benefits from high demand from cashed-up tourists from the US east coast and oil executives travelling to and from Australia. As a result, the airline has reduced the number of flights on the Auckland-Los Angeles and Auckland-San Francisco routes, which will become increasingly competitive due to the entry of American and United into the New Zealand market from June and July respectively. Macquarie Equities said scheduling data showed an 11% decline in Air NZ's capacity to Los Angeles and a 8.8% decline to San Francisco in the current half relative to a year ago, with a 17% fall to Los Angeles expected in H2 of the calendar year. <br/>