Air New Zealand filled more of its Tasman flights in February as demand outstripped capacity hikes, the airline has reported.
Demand, measured in revenue passenger kilometres (RPK), climbed 7.3%, while capacity grew 5.4% after the carrier introduced B777 aircraft between Auckland and Perth. It led to a 1.5 percentage point increase in load factor to 83%.
Passenger numbers on Tasman and Pacific routes were up 7% to 237,000.
Air NZ carried a total of 1.06 million passengers across its networks during the month up 2.5% on February last year. Long haul numbers increased 0.5%, with RPKs up 3% and capacity down 0.3%. It led to a rise in load factor of 2.7 points to 83.5%.
Group wide yield was up 1.4% on last year, driven by a 5.2% rise in long haul yield. Short haul yields fell 1.6%.
