4 Oct 2012

Air NZ to add more return seats to North America

7:06 am on 4 October 2012

Air New Zealand will add about another 5000 return seats a month to its three flight paths to the West Coast of North America from next year following high demand.

The national carrier is set to increase capacity to San Francisco, Vancouver and Los Angeles from April.

The company says the additional capacity will replace more than 75% of the seats lost from the California market when Qantas exited earlier this year.

Air New Zealand deputy chief executive Norm Thompson said the high dollar is helping boost demand.

"They see New Zealand very much as a quality destination and the great news for the economy here in New Zealand and for tourism is that they stay a good length of time - over 20 days."

Mr Thompson also said the additional flights give further freight capacity to North America which will allow for more New Zealand exports to the North American market.

Air New Zealand will announce further capacity additions to North America in the next few weeks.