Air New Zealand ranks third in Asia Pacific punctuality

Air New Zealand ranked third in Cirium’s September Asia Pacific punctuality rankings, following Hainan Airlines and Trinity Airways. The airline reported that 87.3 per cent of its flights arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled time in September, marking an 11.8 percentage point increase compared to the previous year.

Regional services were the airline's strongest performers, with 90.3 per cent of flights arriving within the 15-minute window. Additionally, flight cancellations decreased to 1.4 per cent in September, down from 3.3 per cent a year earlier.

The improvement is attributed to a new “pre-staging general boarding” process. This method, which allows boarding to begin as soon as an aircraft is cleared, was trialled on international departures from Auckland and domestic jet services before being approved for all Air New Zealand departures from New Zealand as of 1 October.