Air New Zealand is continuing its once weekly return service from Auckland to Tonga to run through to June 30. The renewed schedule includes other Pacific routes.

The airline extended its COVID-19 international schedule, in response to ongoing travel restrictions and low passenger demand.

The schedule aims to keep air links open for essential travel and cargo movement on key trade routes.

Air NZ General Manager Networks Scott Carr stated today that the airline has been progressively updating its schedule over the past 12-months in response to the global pandemic.

He said their schedule is driven by a number of factors including airport takeoff and landing slots which generally operate on a “use it or lose it” basis.

“This means if you don’t fly the majority of your schedule you may lose access to airports. We have been waiting to receive slot alleviation for the April to end of June period, which means our regular slot times are protected even if we can’t fly them all.

As this is now progressing, we are now able to move ahead with adapting our schedule through to 30 June to better reflect the low demand environment we are currently operating in, he said.

“We understand these are very uncertain times and it can be tricky for people looking to get home with a lot of things needing to line up including flights, testing and managed isolation bookings. We feel a responsibility to ensure Kiwis can come home and are doing our best to make this happen as smoothly as possible."

He then strongly recommended customers to check government border restrictions for the relevant countries and/or individual passport requirements before booking a ticket.

In addition, the airline’s customer service team is supporting those affected by these changes. Customers booked via a travel agent, including a third-party website (e.g. Expedia, Booking.com) should speak with their agent.

Air New Zealand’s dedicated COVID-19 information hub is being updated continuously and customers should check this first, before calling the airline’s contact centre.

The updated schedule is from March 28 to June 30.

Meanwhile, there is no change to trans-Tasman services at this stage. All services are subject to change in line with global travel and border restrictions.

The updated schedule from 28 March 2021 to 30 June 2021 is below.