Air New Zealand prepares for busiest ever July school holidays

Air New Zealand is preparing for what it says is its busiest ever July school holiday period, with more than half a million Kiwis set to fly on 7500 services. The airline said 670,000 seats had been booked across its domestic network this July. Chief customer and sales officer Leanne Geraghty said the number of seats booked for this winter break was 52% higher than last year’s. “Domestic sales are so strong for July school holidays that we are intending to operate 56% more domestic flights than the July 2020 school holidays.” Auckland Airport is also expecting a hectic month, saying it will have its busiest day at the domestic terminal since March 2020 when borders closed. More than 700,000 passengers are forecast to fly in or out of the airport on 4000 domestic flights in July, the airport said. The number of flights is 44% higher than in July 2020. This Friday is expected to be the busiest day at the airport, with some 28,000 people set to use the domestic terminal – the highest number since the pandemic struck. Auckland Airport general manager operations, Anna Cassels-Brown, said the airport was expecting domestic traveller numbers to reach about 90% of pre-Covid levels this month. “Our staff have been working steadily through the recovery of the aviation and travel sector – now we’re ready, and excited, about our biggest day since the outbreak of the pandemic.”<br/>