Air New Zealand’s domestic network is operating largely as normal and the situation is beginning to stabilise as the airline manages its way through the impact of Refining New Zealand’s temporary shut-down of its pipeline to Auckland.

Air New Zealand will fly almost 60,000 additional seats between Auckland and Honolulu from April to October next year, an increase of 75 per cent compared with this year. The airline will operate an additional 94 return services during the period, moving to daily flights and up to nine services per week during the busy July school holiday period.

Air New Zealand has announced three new appointments including Jorge Flores-Garcia as the sales manager for the UK and Europe. At the same time, Sandra Rogat will take up the role of manager of market development for the region, while Bethany Bond becomes the manager of performance and alliance.

Air New Zealand is to spend over £55 million increasing the number of premium seats on its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners and refurbishing its Boeing 777-300 fleet (which operates from London Heathrow) in response to customer trends. Increasing demand for premium travel means the three Dreamliners scheduled to be delivered from October 2017 will arrive with a fresh new cabin configuration that will increase the number of Business Premier seats from 18 to 27 and Premium Economy seats from 21 to 33.

Air New Zealand and Tourism New Zealand have announced a marketing partnership worth more than $20 million over the coming financial year to promote New Zealand to new and existing international markets and collaboratively grow the value on in-bound tourism. The two organisations have signed a new memorandum of understanding investing more than $10 million each over 12 months in cooperative marketing activity in the key markets of Australia, China, North and South America, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and Europe.

Air New Zealand has announced earnings before taxation of $457 million for the first six months of the 2016 financial year, an increase of 132 per cent on the prior period. Net profit after taxation was $338 million, an increase of 154 per cent. The interim result was driven by exceptionally strong passenger revenue growth, underpinned by over 16 per cent capacity growth across the network.