'Not going back to 2019 levels': Air NZ boss warns cheap flights era is over

Air New Zealand CEO Greg Foran says while the airline is working to bring airfares down, travellers shouldn’t expect a return to pre-pandemic prices. The airline on Thursday posted an annual profit of NZ$412m, while also announcing an order for new aircraft that it said would add 768,000 seats a year. The new aircraft, which would arrive from late 2024, included two 68-seat ATR72-600 turboprops to be used on regional routes, and two 214-seat Airbus A321neo aircraft to be used on Tasman and Pacific Island routes. Foran said flying continued to be in high demand, which meant prices had been higher than usual. He said the airline’s fares had increased between 30 and 35% on average since Covid. “The most effective thing we can do to help customers is to welcome more aircraft into our fleet and put more seats in the sky.” However, he said while adding more seats played an important part in working to reduce prices, the business was still dealing with rising costs across many areas, from spare parts and new aircraft to dry cleaning and airport charges – all of which contributed to higher airfares. “We’re not going to go back to 2019 levels – I want to be clear about that.” But he used North America as an example of where they were expecting to see some easing, with an influx of airlines from November set to increase capacity by 40%. Foran also emphasised that if travellers booked early, they would still find fares available some “pretty good” prices.<br/>