ANZ stacks on the flights to Oz

Encouraged by the uptake of its Tasman Express service to and from Australia, Air New Zealand today announced it was increasing the number of flights by 8 per cent.
From July 2, the airline will increase its total number of flights to Australia to 125 per week from 116, making available an additional 100,000 seats a year.
The company said that since launching Tasman Express in October the airline had had a 15 per cent increase in passengers. This is in spite of new competition on the route from airlines such as Emirates and Pacific Blue.
Marketing manager Norm Thompson Air New Zealand now had more flights and offered more flexibility than Qantas with which it is still attempting to form an alliance.
The new flights will be shared between Christchurch and Melbourne, Christchurch and Brisbane and Auckland and Brisbane.
Auckland to Brisbane daily services will increase from nine to 12 services per week using a Boeing 747-400 Airbus A320 aircraft.
Christchurch to Melbourne daily services will increase from seven to 12 using A320 planes.
The new schedule will offer a morning departure from Christchurch at 6.10am as well as an afternoon flight at 3.35pm.
Christchurch to Brisbane services will increase from four to five services per week, with improved scheduling resulting in two afternoon and three evening services.
Mr Thompson said the latest tourism figures reflected the success of Tasman Express. Tourism New Zealand figures showed consecutive growth in visitor numbers from Australia with a record 67,400 travellers coming to New Zealand in January of this year, an increase of 26.8 per cent on the same period of the previous year.
The Australian Tourist Commission shows New Zealanders visiting Australia have also been on the rise, up 14 per cent in January 2004 to 53,600.