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Air New Zealand has announced a third round of cuts to domestic flight routes due to continued high jet fuel prices.
From June 29 to July 26, 44 return flights will be removed from Tauranga’s schedule of flights to Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington and 70 from the Nelson schedule.
Air New Zealand said these consolidations affect around 2% of passengers due to travel across this period.
Nelson Mayor Nick Smith said on Thursday that 23 Nelson flights to and from Auckland, 32 to and from Wellington and 15 to and from Christchurch were being cut.
Smith said these cancellations now bring the total number of flights lost to the South Island centre since then to 266 or about 12,000 seats.
“The loss of flights will also have a negative effect on council’s finances as a 50% owner in Nelson Airport Ltd.
“My greatest concern is for our visitor industry. I continue to encourage Nelson people considering taking a holiday in the next couple of months to think about options locally such as Golden Bay, Abel Tasman or Nelson Lakes to help our local tourism sector.”
From Tauranga, 27 return flights to Auckland have been affected, mainly mid-morning and late night services Monday to Wednesday plus mid-day on Thursday.
Twelve return flights on the Tauranga–Wellington route were also being cut (mid-day Monday to Friday), and five return flights on the Tauranga–Christchurch route.
Stuff has also been made aware of Whangarei-Auckland services being cut during the date period.
When it announced its first lot of cuts in March, Air New Zealand told Stuff that it has not necessarily cancelled the same flight each week e.g. flight NZ000 on Mondays, or the 12.50pm flight to Wellington each day.
It said routes where there is no frequency to fall back on, have not been touched.
Invercargill has only one flight most days to Auckland, Taupo has two flights per day, and Rotorua has two flights per day to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch while Gisborne has two flights per day to Wellington.
Affected customers will be notified from Thursday and offered a refund or credit if the new flight does not suit.
“If you don’t hear from us, your flight is operating as scheduled,” Air New Zealand said.
Air NZ did not provide a full list of affected routes when asked.