He says the airport is up to 89% of 2019 passenger volumes and, with a busy summer ahead, that is likely to reach 93%.
Tasker, who was a speaker at the Tourism Export Council of New Zealand’s Christmas Symposium points to issues affecting airlines’ ability to meet market demands, which he says may lead to a 10% ‘capacity gap’.
‘There is a delay in deliveries and at the same time maintenance issues are impacting the in-service fleet. The geographic remoteness of New Zealand remains challenging as well.’
He says it is concerning that Australia, Canada, Singapore and USA have all fully recovered in terms of air capacity and New Zealand still has a gap to close.
‘I think we will see close to every seat on every flight (into AKL) full this summer. I don’t see any capacity announcement coming and that’s where growth could flatten.’
Fellow speaker at the summit, George Robertson, GM New Zealand Singapore Airlines, notes that the airline has four flights a day (in conjunction with partner Air New Zealand) into Auckland over the summer, and two services into Christchurch – one daily and the other three times a week.
‘Wellington is still paused but we are regularly reviewing that. At the moment we are concentrating on Auckland and Christchurch.’
