Air New Zealand Saves the Day for Kiwi ‘Swifties’

Taylor Swift is heading to Australia for her Eras Tour in February, which is great … for Australians. Unfortunately for New Zealand fans, the pop star has not included any cities across the ditch for her world tour itinerary.

Air New Zealand to the rescue.

With the recent release of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour dates, the airline witnessed a remarkable surge, with over 3,500 Kiwis booking flights coinciding with the concert dates. By chance, this occurred on the final day of the airline’s Australia and New Zealand sale.

“This would probably be one of the greatest demands we’ve ever seen, particularly on the trans-Tasman perspective,” said General Manager of Short Haul Jeremy O’Brien.

In response to this surge, Air New Zealand last week announced more than 2,000 new seats from Wellington, Christchurch, and Auckland to Melbourne and Sydney.

“When the concerts got announced, we did 3,500 passenger bookings. The following week we did another 6,000 passengers. So, about 10,000 Kiwis are taking that demand to go across the Tasman for the concerts,” O’Brien said.

Air New Zealand is embracing the “Swift Surge” by doing more than adding additional flights. Some new flights will be designated ‘NZ1989’ as their flight number in homage to Taylor Swift’s Grammy-winning album, 1989.

In 2017, Air New Zealand added 7,000 seats to its domestic network to get fans to Ed Sheeran shows in Auckland and Dunedin, swapping out narrow-body airliners for wide-body jets such as Boeing 787s.

Airlines across Australia have seen similar demand. Virgin Australia alone saw a 656% increase in bookings to Melbourne and Sydney during Swift’s concert dates. However, the airline is yet to increase capacity.

“Swifties based in Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide are leading the interstate fanfare with the most booked fares across the concert dates,” said a Virgin Australia spokeswoman.

Qantas has also seen a dramatic increase in flight demand. In response to this, they added more than 60 additional flights to and from Sydney and Melbourne for both interstate and New Zealand concertgoers.

Air New Zealand has released the additional seats between New Zealand and Australia, which currently start at $132 (NZ$215) one-way.

However, limited availability is left, so the airline has urged fans to act swiftly.