The airline's crews who fly internationally continue to be exempt from the strict 14-day quarantine rules for people returning to New Zealand from overseas with the exception of Los Angeles flights.
On Monday the airline confirmed crew members had been forced to self-isolate after some staff allegedly disregarded physical distancing rules during a layover in Vancouver.
Documents obtained by Checkpoint show increasing unease and fear among flight crew staff about the exemption from isolation or quarantine, and the risk it poses to colleagues and the public.
Air New Zealand is currently operating 16 return international services a week. At the end of May it plans to add three return services a week to Shanghai to that schedule.
For more than a week, Checkpoint has repeatedly asked Air New Zealand, the Ministry of Health and the Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield for the number of Air NZ staff who have tested positive for Covid-19. Nobody has been able to provide the information, and Air New Zealand has declined requests for an interview on Checkpoint.
In a statement, an Air NZ spokesperson said the company had been following guidance set down by the Ministry of Health.
"This is expert medical advice for all airlines to follow in New Zealand. If there are general concerns or questions about this advice then that is a matter for the Ministry of Health as they have established these standards.
"Staff who have concerns or questions around this guidance can raise this with the airline in a variety of ways. We have our team of in-house aviation medicine doctors who have been providing detailed advice to staff on reducing the risk of spreading infection and on the MoH guidance. The use of PPE forms part of the MoH guidance."
New Zealand's biggest Covid-19 coronavirus cluster is the Bluff wedding, where the virus has spread to nearly 100 people and killed two, including the groom's father.
The cluster has been officially linked to overseas travel. An Air NZ flight attendant who had just returned from the United States and had already been exposed to Covid-19 was at the wedding reception.
"On 19 March, NZ5 arrived at Auckland from LAX on which three passengers tested positive for Covid-19, at least two crew later tested positive. A crew member from that flight, before testing positive, went down to Bluff to attend a wedding, and now we all know about the 'Bluff cluster'," an Air NZ employee told Checkpoint. ■
A clipper system will move quickly across the northern Plains into the Midwest Friday and the Northeast by Saturday, bringing a wintry mix of rain and snow showers ahead of a sweeping cold front.