Qantas boosts flights to NZ; overtaking Air NZ in number of trans-tasman flights
Qantas has announced a significant boost its flights to and from Australia and New Zealand during the upcoming summer travel period. It will see an increase in capacity of up to 20 percent over December and January.
A Qantas Boeing 737 that the airline will use for its increased number of flights | Photo: Noah Stohr-Waldren
The increase in flights will result in Qantas operating over 3.3 million seats across the Tasman between January 2025 and January 2026. This is now higher than competitor Air New Zealand that only operates 3.2 million seats between New Zealand and Australia every year.
In total, the airline will add up to 32 extra flights on their existing routes using their large fleet of Boeing 737-800s.
Recently, Qantas has been upgrading their aging 737s with split scimitar wingtips to increase efficiency, especially on trans-tasman flights.
Qantas also recently announced that they will restart flights from Perth and Adelaide to Auckland later this year.
In addition to the increased number of flights, they will also introduce their larger capacity Boeing 787-9 on flights from Brisbane to Auckland.
Qantas CEO Cam Wallace said “This capacity boost represents almost 60,000 more seats compared to last summer, giving our customers additional choice and more convenience as well as supporting tourism and economic growth in both markets.”
Additional flights will be added on these routes:
Sydney – Auckland: Up to 6 additional flights per week, up from 36.
Sydney – Christchurch: Up to 7 additional flights per week, up from 14.
Sydney – Wellington: Up to 5 additional flights per week, up from 14.
Melbourne – Auckland: Up to 7 additional flights per week, up from 28.
Melbourne – Christchurch: Up to 3 additional flights per week, up from 11.
Melbourne – Queenstown: Up to 2 additional flights per week, up from 4.
Brisbane – Queenstown: Up to 3 additional flights per week, up from 4.