Air New Zealand bullish on rising China demand

Air New Zealand said it is bullish on the growth potential of the direct flights market between China and New Zealand, fueled by an increasing travel demand from China.

Scott Carr, regional general manager for Asia at Air New Zealand, the national flag carrier, said China is a vibrant and exciting market, and it is seeing strong growth potential in the Chinese market.

"The Chinese Spring Festival break is the strongest peak season of outflow, and we usually increase our capacity during that period to meet with the growing travel demand. We operate 10 flights a week between Shanghai and Auckland in this period. This peak is followed by July and August, when the summer holiday approaches. It is winter in New Zealand when it is summer in China, and we recommend the winter itinerary during this period," Carr said.

"Recently, we launched special offers for all cabin classes targeting family travelers, and if there are two adults traveling together in our economy seats, they can book one seat and get 50 percent off for the other one," he said.

With a joint venture alliance with Air China, the two carriers have a comprehensive cooperation on code sharing and revenue sharing. Air New Zealand plans to cooperate more with Air China on marketing and sales, and put more effort into developing the demand surrounding the Shanghai area.

"We are focusing on the area surrounding Shanghai, and working closely with Air China to offer a better connection for those travelers from second-tier cities. We will constantly evaluate the opportunities to grow our network and the number of destinations our customers can connect to, including other new destinations in China," Carr said.

He added that Air New Zealand plans to cooperate with Juneyao Airlines, a Shanghai-based private airline, but the specific plans are as yet undisclosed.

Air New Zealand would also like to grab more business opportunities in the markets involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

"We are keen to embrace the tourism, trade, cargo and e-commerce opportunities related to the Belt and Road Initiative, and bridge culture closer. We will accordingly offer more and better connections for passengers and cargos," Carr said.

"We are also looking at using our Shanghai to Auckland services to connect customers onto South America with our Auckland to Buenos Aires service. By improving our timeslots, we will be able to offer customers the most efficient connection between Shanghai and Argentina."

In the past decade, Air New Zealand has witnessed rapid growth from China and the country has become New Zealand's second-largest international tourism market after Australia, with 420,000 Chinese tourists visiting New Zealand every year. Last year, New Zealand started to issue five-year multiple-entry visas for Chinese citizens.

By 2024, it is expected that almost 800,000 Chinese visitors will travel to New Zealand every year, and the compound annual growth rate from 2017 to 2024 will be 9.7 percent, according to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment of New Zealand.