With New Zealanders and Australians now able to visit each other with relatively few hassles, Air New Zealand is busy rebooting its trans-Tasman network. The Auckland-based airline had maintained a barebones schedule to and from a couple of Australian cities throughout the pandemic, increasing or decreasing frequencies are circumstances changed. But now, with both countries reopening for business, Air New Zealand is restoring its network and outlining firm restart dates.

Air New Zealand is already flying the Auckland (AKL) - Sydney (SYD), Auckland - Melbourne (MEL), Auckland - Brisbane (BNE), and Auckland - Gold Coast (OOL) city pairs.

"Last week we added an extra 96 trans-Tasman flights for April through to June, an increase of approximately 20,000 seats," said Air New Zealand Chief Customer and Sales Officer Leanne Geraghty during the week.

Air New Zealand's resuming services to Adelaide, Cairns, & Hobart

Air New Zealand services between Auckland and Adelaide (ADL) will resume on July 4. These five-hour flights over to the South Australian capital and back will take five hours to complete on the westbound leg and four hours and 20 minutes to fly on the homeward sector. The flights will operate Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays using an all-economy class Airbus A321neo and will go head-to-head against the Qatar Airways Airbus A350-900s now flying the route.

Flights between Auckland and Cairns (CNS) will resume on July 5. Operating just once a week (on Tuesdays) for the first couple of weeks, the five hour and 50 minute Airbus A320neo service will ramp up to three services a week by the end of July, scooting up to Cairns on Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday mornings before returning to AKL in the afternoon.

Air New Zealand will also recommence its previously short-lived services between Auckland and Hobart (HBA) on July 7. Also operated by an A320neo, Air New Zealand will fly into the Tasmanian capital every Thursday and Sunday morning. Under a deal with the Tasmanian Government, Air New Zealand only started flying to HBA in April 2021 but soon paused the flights as travel restrictions tightened again. Once flights resume, Air New Zealand will be the only airline offering international flights to and from Hobart.

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Australian bound flights from Christchurch & Wellington have already resumed

In other Air New Zealand aviation news, flights from Christchurch (CHC) to and from Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane have already resumed as have flights from Wellington (WLG) to the same three Australian cities. However, flights between Christchurch and the Gold Coast are scheduled to restart on July 4. Simple Flying is spotting Air New Zealand's A320neos operating the three-hour and 50-minute sector up to OOL every Friday, Monday, and Tuesday afternoon before returning to Christchurch in the evening for a pre-midnight touchdown.

Air New Zealand's Queenstown flights to & from Australia restart in late June

But before all these early July flight resumptions happen, Air New Zealand flights on the Queenstown (ZQN) - Sydney, Queenstown - Melbourne, and Queenstown - Brisbane city pairs are restarting in late June. Initially flying the ZQN - BNE city pair three times a week from June 24, Air New Zealand's A320neo operated flights ramp up to four times a week by the end of July- operating on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Also on June 24, Air New Zealand flights between Queenstown and Melbourne will resume. By the start of July, the MEL flights will operate on a daily basis - over to ZQN in the morning, and back to MEL in the afternoon. Sydney flights start the next day, June 25, and immediately kick off with daily flights, with a mid-morning departure A320neo out of Queenstown and a mid-afternoon pushback from Sydney.

Frequencies aren't back to their 2019 levels and there are smaller planes scheduled on some trans-Tasman sectors than seen before, but Air New Zealand is making clear inroads into re-activating their Australian network. What's missing? There's no word yet on when the airline might resume its seasonal flights between Auckland and Newcastle Williamtown (NTL) and Maroochydore/Sunshine Coast (MCY).