Air New Zealand's chief executive estimates it could take up to six weeks to prepare to fly New Zealanders to their chosen Christmas destinations, so it needs a decision on borders urgently.
Customers aged 12 or over will also need to be double vaccinated or have proof of negative Covid-19 test 72 hours before departure to fly with the national carrier this summer.
The policy kicks in from 14 December 14 and next week the government will announce exactly when Auckland's border is due to reopen.
Air NZ chief executive Greg Foran told Checkpoint "the reality is for domestic we really need the best part of four to six weeks so we have to do something that we've actually been doing since the beginning of Covid - i.e. for 20 months - which is we have to place, if you like some bets on the board, and we're sort of doing that in December.
"So you know if you go onto our site at the moment you'll see there are plenty of flights available in December, and we'll leave those there, and hopefully we're going to be able to fly them.
"If we can't, then unfortunately we end up cancelling them at reasonably late notice, which puts a lot of pressure on everyone in the organisation, but we just don't have the ability to turn the business around on a dime.
"You know you gotta get planes in the right area, you've got to get people trained. It's quite a lengthy process to restart an airline."
Each day counted, he said.
"Ideally we would like to know even right now what's happening, but you know, we appreciate that sometimes these decisions come a bit later on in the piece, so we just have to have to adjust accordingly, but absolutely each day counts ... but we've got ourselves reasonably juiced up for a pretty decent amount of flying through December, January, February."
The airline could put more flights on if needed.
"As soon as we can get some information we will move accordingly."
There were some "fantastic" prices on flights available, he said.
"You know some of these these flights one way $49, $59 and and that's reflective of the fact that we've put on quite a bit of capacity and and a lot of people are still holding back to see what's going to happen and no doubt if we do get a green light to go, then I think we'll see plenty of people taking up those offers."
Covid-19 had taught the airline a lot about needing to be loyal to smaller regions, Foran said.
"We've reflected that in our thinking and in the more recent lockdown that we've experienced, putting on those flights from Kerikeri to Wellington were a really big deal."
The airline was looking at potential flights direct from Tauranga or Nelson to other regions.
The Auckland shut down had cost Air New Zealand between $25 million to $35m per month.
"It's a big issue for us and and really, when you think about it, Air New Zealand now for some time has really only been operating outside of Auckland and cargo flights and what are we now about 640 days into Covid? So we are really looking forward to getting back out, getting some flying in."
