(Reuters) – Air New Zealand Ltd on Thursday reported a bigger first-half loss and forecast its annual loss to exceed NZ$800 million ($541 million) following a lengthy COVID-19 related lockdown in Auckland.
The carrier’s underlying loss before tax widened to NZ$367 million in the six months ended Dec. 31, from NZ$186 million a year earlier.
“The airline has typically derived two-thirds of its revenue from its international passenger network and much of that was effectively grounded for the majority of the first half,” Chief Executive Greg Foran said in a statement.
Air New Zealand, which posted a loss of NZ$440 million for 2021, also said on Thursday it plans to raise equity by the end of March or shortly thereafter to replace a NZ$2 billion liquidity package from its largest shareholder, the New Zealand government.
The airline had drawn down NZ$760 million of a government loan by Wednesday, it said.
The carrier’s domestic business was hit hard in the first half by a lockdown in Auckland, the country’s largest city, at a time when international borders remained closed.
The government has announced plans for a phased border opening this year, but travel bodies say rules requiring self-isolation on arrival need to be removed to revive the struggling tourism sector.
Air New Zealand added that there was still “a large degree of uncertainty” over the impact of the Omicron variant on demand for domestic travel for the rest of the financial year.
($1 = 1.4775 New Zealand dollars)
(Reporting by Jaskiran Singh in Bengaluru and Jamie Freed in Sydney; Editing by Maju Samuel)
