Air New Zealand may add extra trans-Tasman flights to help thousands of travellers left stranded by Qantas suspending all of its services indefinitely.
On Saturday, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce grounded the company's entire domestic and international fleet,
He announced workers - including pilots, engineers, baggage and ground staff - would be locked out from Monday night because of ongoing industrial action.
The months-long union action over pay and conditions is estimated to be costing the company $A20 million ($NZ26 million) a day.
Qantas' trans-Tasman flights were unaffected, as they were operated by a subsidiary, and Jetstar flights in New Zealand were also unaffected.
The company was offering full refunds, while other Australian airlines were working to re-book passengers on discounted fares.
Air New Zealand spokesman Mark Street told NZ Newswire the airline was assessing whether it had the capacity to put on extra trans-Tasman flights to help its alliance partner, Virgin Blue.
"Virgin is looking at what additional capacity they may be able to put into the domestic Australian market and so they've asked the likes of ourselves to see if there's any flying we can do on the Tasman ... so they can take those aircraft off and operate them in domestic Australia," he said.
Air New Zealand expected to have more information on what capacity was needed and what it could offer by Sunday afternoon, he said.
NZN