Airline denies upgrading

Press, 23 July 1987, Page 6

Airline denies upgrading

By

LES BLOXHAM,

travel editor

Air New Zealand yesterday denied it has upgraded economy passengers to Pacific class on some domestic flights to correct the “trim” of its new dual-class Boeing 7375.

Aircraft must be balanced — “trimmed” — by an even distribution of its load before takeoff. An imbalance, which can affect an aircraft’s ability to fly, is created when too much weight is placed either to the front or rear. Air New Zealand, like all airlines, takes meticulous care to ensure that the trim is correct before clearing a flight for takeoff. This is achieved by carefully distributing the

load — freight and passengers — within the aircraft.

Seven of Air New Zealand’s Boeing 737 s now have 28 Pacific class seats in a spacius zone at the front of the aircraft and 69 economy seats to the rear. The problem for the airline is when all the economy seats are sold, but there are too few Pacific class bookings. According to an informed source, the airline has rectified the resulting imbalance by upgrading passengers to the front at no extra charge. However, a public relations spokesman for the airline in Auckland said passengers had been upgraded only when there had been an excess of bookings for the economy section.