Air New Zealand’s Christmas cracker targets the hearts of travellers

The competitive spirit has come alive ahead of the busy holiday season with Air New Zealand releasing a Christmas video designed to win the hearts of travellers | WATCH

Air New Zealand is back to its best with a clever Christmas video, designed to win the hearts of travellers.

The competitive spirit has come alive ahead of the busy summer holiday season with Air New Zealand targeting the hearts of travellers through a clever Christmas video.

Already notching up over 100,000 views on YouTube, the Great Christmas Chase channels a range of famous action films — from Indiana Jones to the Fast and Furious — in a simple story about a flight attendant trying to reunite a passenger with a forgotten gift.

Air New Zealand chief customer and sales manager Leanne Geraghty said the 90-second film demonstrated the airline’s commitment to creating unforgettable moments for customers.

“On Christmas Day alone, more than 30,000 customers will be flying with Air New Zealand, and we want to ensure each and every one of them has an incredible experience,” Ms Geraghty said.

“We know that just like in our video, our entire team, go above and beyond to create exceptional moments of magic no matter what obstacles come flying their way.”

The video came as Flight Centre shared data demonstrating 2023 had been a huge year for travel with one customer splashing out $312,647 on a cruise, and another spending $111,956 on a hotel stay.

The travel agency’s biggest booking was for 40 people going to Adelaide, and the longest hotel stay was 367 days.

Melbourne was the most popular destination among Flight Centre clients, followed by Sydney, Brisbane, London and Bali.

Almost a third of bookings were for overseas travel, with some of the longest trips (by distance) to Longyearbyen in Norway, and Ushuaia in Argentina.

In Australia just over 1.4 million flights were sold, 20 per cent of which were one way, and 7533 cars were hired.

Four star hotels were in most demand, accounting for 55 per cent of bookings, followed by three star accommodation (23 per cent) and then five star (18 per cent).

Solo women travellers were the most common client of Flight Centre, making up 25 per cent of customers and typically heading overseas to London, Bali, Auckland, Athens or Rome.

Family customers were most likely to book trips to Cairns or the Gold Coast in Australia, and Fiji, Hawaii or Bali overseas.

Although the majority of international trips were to a single destination and back, Flight Centre’s most complex booking was for a flight itinerary with 13 legs.

The solo passenger flew from Brisbane to Sydney then on to Santiago in Chile, Cusco in Peru and back to Santiago, before heading to Buenos Aires.

From there they flew to Rio de Janeiro, and on to London, Lisbon, Casablanca, Doha and Bangkok before returning to Sydney and back to Brisbane.

Most summer holiday travel will be far less complex with the Gold Coast expecting record numbers.

Jetstar was preparing to carry more than 250,000 people into the Glitter Strip for Christmas and New Year, and the airport was expecting 1.2 million passengers in total – exceeding pre-pandemic figures.

Another 3.7 million passengers were expected through Brisbane Airport, just shy of 2019 figures.