New Zealand’s national carrier is feeling the pinch from lockdowns, travel route shutdowns and restrictions on the aviation sector

Air New Zealand is operating at less than one-third of its usual domestic capacity due to the tough restrictions in Auckland and doubts whether a travel bubble with Australia will reope.

According to the airline’s CEO, operations outside of Auckland are running at full speed, but with the major city equating to two-thirds of the domestic network, the financial hit is huge.

Foran says that current COVID restrictions within Auckland are having a “pretty significant impact to our business.”

The major financial losses:

Air New Zealand stated that it is burning through around NZ$25 million to NZ$35 million of cash a month due to the lockdown in the country’s largest city, which the government says will be scaled back in phases as vaccination rates rise.

New Zealand was one of a handful of countries around the world that brought COVID cases down to zero, sticking to an eradication strategy. The delta variant however proved too much.

The closure of a quarantine-free travel bubble with Australia is costing the Air New Zealand a further another $20 million to $25 million a month in cash burn.

The airline’s CEO said it was possible the New Zealand government would treat Australia like any other country in the future when it came to testing and quarantine rules, as is being done now.