How to avoid Air New Zealand's Richard Simmons "Fit to Fly" disco safety video in flight

Air New Zealand's new Richard Simmons safety video is ridiculously funny -- at least the first time you see it.

Of course, if the airline carries through with it and actually installs it on their aircraft, frequent travellers with the airline will get heartily sick of spandex and disco lighting.

Just imagine getting to the airport for 0730 for the business shuttle from Wellington to Auckland (which we reviewed a couple of months ago and rather enjoyed) and being confronted with unnaturally energetic lycra-clad loons lurching about on the screen in front of you.

It's enough to make you want to "step, step, step" right off the plane.

But some Air New Zealand flights won't have the new videos, and we're more than happy to help you figure out how to book seats on those flights. No April Fool's day joke!

Trans-Tasman flights

Aim for Air New Zealand's larger Boeing 747, 767 and 777 aircraft. The plane shown in the safety video is a smaller short-distance Boeing 737, which hints that the video may well be kept for smaller aircraft.

The airline also recently produced special videos for its new flagship Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, so it's more unlikely to put the new video on those planes. (We've reviewed Business Premier, Premium Economy Spaceseat and Economy Skycouch seating on the new 777-300ER to help you make your decision about what kind of ticket to buy.)

To check which flights to New Zealand have these larger aircraft, hover over the flight number during the booking process.

Top tip: Wellington Airport's short runway means that the largest aircraft that regularly flies in and out is the Airbus A320, so travellers to New Zealand's capital are plumb out of luck for larger aircraft and may have to resort to the earplug defence.

Domestic New Zealand flights

Aim for the turboprop (propeller-driven) Q300, ATR72 and Beech 1900D aircraft flown by Air New Zealand subsidiaries rather than the mainline Boeing 737-300 and Airbus A320 jets where you can. 

Turboprops don't have entertainment screens, so the safety demonstration is manual and (unless the crew get really into it) won't involve calisthenics of any form.

You can tell which flights use turboprops by the flight number. Air New Zealand mainline jet flights have three digits, while the turboprops have four-digit flight numbers.

Turboprops flights are also usually slightly longer than jet flights, although New Zealand is small enough that the extra speed of jets doesn't really make that much of a difference.

We hope this advice will keep you from looking like you're doing "the duck" when you hear the safety video come on at the beginning of your flight.

John Walton

Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.