Air New Zealand's (NZE:AIR, ASX:AIZ) group capacity dropped 3.1% in January from the same month a year ago impacted by lower aircraft availability due to maintenance requirements, according to a Wednesday filing with the Australian and New Zealand bourses.

Long-haul international available seat kilometers (ASKs) decreased 5.5%, short-haul international ASKs grew 1.2%, and domestic ASKs were down 2.8% compared with January 2024, the filing said.

The country's flagship airline carried over 1.2 million passengers in January, down 1.3% on the year-ago period, per the filing.

Year-to-date, the number of passengers carried was down 2% to nearly 9.3 million compared with 9.6 million in the prior-year period.

The airline's shares were down 1% in recent Wednesday trade in New Zealand.