Air New Zealand Reels From Auckland Curbs, Australia Bubble Loss

An Air New Zealand passenger jet taxis at Sydney's airport on Sept. 17, 2001. Mark Baker/Reuters

Air New Zealand Ltd. is operating less than one-third of its usual domestic capacity due to tough COVID-19 restrictions in Auckland and doubts whether a travel bubble with Australia will reopen, the airline’s chief executive said on Thursday.

“We’re running almost 100 percent outside of Auckland,” Air New Zealand CEO Greg Foran told Reuters in an interview. “It’s a reasonable network but Auckland is literally two-thirds of the domestic network so it’s a pretty significant impact to our business, not having Auckland operating at this stage.”