Effective February 01, 2022, all passengers aged 18 and older arriving or departing Aotearoa on Air New Zealand aircraft, including aircrew, will need to be fully vaccinated.
Announcing the decision, Air New Zealand’s chief executive, Greg Foran said vaccination against Covid-19 is the new reality of international travel.
“Mandating vaccination on our international flights will give both customers and employees the peace of mind that everyone onboard meets the same health requirements as they do,” he said.
Mr Foran said the staff opinion had played a major role in the decision.
“We know this is the right thing to do to protect our people, our customers and the wider New Zealand community.
“We’ll spend the next few months making sure we get this right, ensuring it works as smoothly as possible for our customers. This also gives anyone wanting to travel from next year plenty of time to get their vaccination.”
Mr Foran said the company was working on rolling out the International Air Transport Associations (IATA) Travel Pass app, which would check customers’ health information against flight details to ensure they are meeting entry requirements for that destination.
Mike Parker-Brown is a UK-trained and qualified journalist and an award-winning travel communicator with more than 30 years experience.
Since 2002, Mike has worked as a freelance writer and PR consultant providing his services to major organisations in Australia and internationally in the tourism, aviation, hospitality, recruitment and export marketing sectors.