Air NZ flies customers 30 billion kilometres in 2018

Air New Zealand's passengers flew a total of 30 billion kilometres and offset close to 27,000 tonnes of carbon in 2018.

Air New Zealand's year in review:

• Customers flew a total 29.85 billion kilometres since 1 January 2018
• Its most frequent flyer flew 639,000km - the equivalent to 15 circuits of the earth.
• The top three travellers together clocked up 1.25 million kilometres.
• More than 6.3 million meals served across the airline's global network.
• 512,000 cans of beer served inflight.
• 15.3 million lollies eaten.
• The Greatest Showman was the most viewed film, seen almost 168,500 times in the past year, and Kiwi band Six60's track Closer was the most listened to, with around 6500 hits each month.

The airline offered customers the option to pay a few dollars more for their tickets to minimise the carbon footprint of their flight. The fund supported a range of carbon emission reduction projects, including native forest restoration.

Air New Zealand ran a total of 17 million journeys across the world, with its most frequent flyer boarding 371 flights over the past 12 months.

Spokesman Mike Tod said keeping customers "fed, watered and caffeinated" on the 17 million journeys was a round-the-clock operation. Since 1 January, more than 6.3 million meals were served across the airline's global network.

Mr Tod said the airline poured more than seven million glasses of exclusively New Zealand wines onboard and in its lounges, with sauvignon blanc the preferred tipple.

The expanded New Zealand beer selection also proved popular, with 512,000 cans served inflight - up 7.5 per cent on the year prior.

Customers also munched their way through 15.3 million of Air New Zealand's lollies.

Mr Tod said the year had offered up its fair share of challenges, including significant weather problems around the country, and disruptions caused by problems with the engines on some of the Dreamliner Boeing 787 fleet.

Air New Zealand engineers threatened strikes in the days before Christmas that were narrowly called off, after threatening plans for travellers, estimated to be as high as 120,000 people.

"We'd like to thank those who have travelled with us in 2018, which has had its fair share of challenges, as schedules have been disrupted by the impact of issues with the Rolls Royce engines that power some of our 787s and significant weather events around the country."

He said the airline expected to fly 18 million customers in 2019, following the launch of direct flights to Chicago and Taipei.