Air New Zealand Sees Loss Despite Revenue Growth Amid Fuel Price Pressure

Air New Zealand reported an after-tax loss of NZ$242m in its 2026 financial year, despite a 3.9% increase in revenue to NZ$7.0bn and a 4.8% rise in passenger revenue to NZ$6.1bn.

The airline's pretax result deteriorated by NZ$500m, from a restated NZ$164m profit to a NZ$336m loss, due to rising fuel prices, engine disruption, and maintenance costs.

The main issue was not passenger demand, which saw network capacity increase 1.3%, revenue per available seat kilometer rise 3.4%, and load factor improve 0.3 percentage points to 83.7%.

The airline estimated that Middle East-driven fuel inflation increased its second-half fuel bill by NZ$328m compared with its earlier expectation, with hedging reducing that exposure to NZ$205m.