Air New Zealand (ASX:AIZ, NZE:AIR) expects to carry around 850,000 customers across its domestic New Zealand and international networks during the school holiday period between Thursday and Oct. 11, according to a Thursday statement.

Queenstown, Sydney, and Rarotonga were among the most popular destinations, the airline said. Over 520,000 customers are expected to travel domestically, while almost 330,000 will travel internationally.

It said there were 23% more seats between Auckland and Sydney, 10% more between Auckland and Queenstown, and 12% more between Auckland and Brisbane, compared to the holiday period in the previous year.

Over 33,000 customers are traveling on Friday, the start of the holiday period, which is usually the busiest day, per the statement. There are also over 32,000 travelers expected on Oct. 2 and 9.

The airline's shares advanced over 1% in recent trading on both the Australian and New Zealand bourses on Friday.