Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia are adding extra flights between Auckland and Brisbane amid what the pair says is strong demand for travel across the Tasman.
Under the new schedule, the trans-Tasman alliance partners planned to have 34 flights a week on the Auckland-Brisbane route during the winter months, representing a capacity boost of about 10 per cent compared with the prior year.
This included six return flights on some days of the week.
“Demand for trans-Tasman travel continues to be strong and it’s a market we’re focused on growing,” Air New Zealand chief revenue officer Cam Wallace said in a statement.
In addition extra flights scheduled for between April and October 2018, the two carriers said some services have been retimed to offer travellers more choice.
“Virgin Australia is pleased to see the growth in demand for these services and these network changes,” Virgin Australia group executive for airlines Rob Sharp said.
“Our alliance with Air New Zealand is committed to providing customers with flexible travel options to and from New Zealand and the updates to the flight schedule reflect this.”
The added flying from Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia from April will help add back some capacity on the route following the withdrawal of Emirates’ Airbus A380 flights between Brisbane and Auckland, as well as between Auckland and Melbourne.
Qantas is also boosting its Brisbane-Auckland offering through additional frequencies and the upgauging of some Boeing 737-800 flights to widebodied Airbus A330s.
