Taylor Swift fans willing to travel to see the singer when her current world tour stops in Australia got some good news on Thursday: Air New Zealand is adding new flights to its schedule specifically for the occasion.
Swift announced last week that she will play seven shows in Australia in February 2024 as part of her blockbuster Eras Tour—three in Melbourne from February 16-18, and four in Sydney from February 23-26. No shows in New Zealand have been announced as of yet, meaning that fans in the country will have to make a pilgrimage of sorts to see their idol.
As such, Air New Zealand said it would add 2,000 new seats to its regular flight schedule to accommodate Kiwi Swifties hoping to catch the Australian shows. Among the new flights are roundtrips from Wellington, Christchurch, and Auckland to Melbourne and Sydney. For reference, there are some 450,000 total tickets in play to Swift’s Australian shows.
Tickets for the additional capacity seats will go on sale at 2 p.m. New Zealand Standard Time June 30 in conjunction with the general sale for Eras Tour tickets.
The airline is already seeing a phenomenon it calls a “Swift surge”—a booking bump on its Australia-bound flights that directly corresponds to the singer’s new shows. “When tour dates for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour were released last week, we saw a surge in demand,” Air New Zealand Chief Customer and Sales Officer Leanne Geraghty said in a statement, noting that more than 3,500 Kiwis booked flights to coincide with concert dates when Swift first made the announcement. “Now, as general release goes live tomorrow, we’re expecting another surge in demand for travel.”
The airline is having some fun with this news—diehard Swifties will no doubt appreciate that some of the new flights have been given the name “NZ1989” (a reference to one of her past album titles). But these new seats will hardly compensate for the massive demand, according to Geraghty. “Fans hoping to secure their flights will have to act fast,” she said. “We expect the additional capacity will sell out swiftly.” Wink.