Air New Zealand's Australian quarantine flights sell out in three minutes

Air New Zealand’s Australian quarantine flights have sold out in just three minutes on Monday morning. Multiple emails from would-be travellers have said that the ticket allocation, which went live at 10am, showed all seats were sold out in about “30 seconds”, according to one frustrated customer. Australia’s hotel quarantine system is different to New Zealand’s in that travellers are allocated their place on arrival, instead of having to secure a spot when booking travel. To manage capacity, the Australian Government has a cap on the number of passengers who can arrive from overseas, with airlines receiving an allocation of passenger numbers. Air New Zealand Chief Customer and Sales Officer Leanne Geraghty says that the airline understands the frustrations of customers. “We were allocated a very limited number of managed isolation spaces to return customers home to Australia. The small number of flights that match this allocation went on sale at 10am this morning and sold out in around three minutes,” said Geraghty.<br/>