Feb 20 (Reuters) - Air New Zealand AIR.NZ reported a 17.8% drop in its half-yearly profit on Thursday as it continues to face aircraft availability issues caused by global maintenance delays.
New Zealand's flagship carrier reported a statutory profit before tax of NZ$106 million ($60.48 million) for the six months ended December 31, compared with NZ$129 million a year ago.
That, however, beat a Visible Alpha consensus of NZ$101.6 million.
($1 = 1.7525 New Zealand dollars)
(Reporting by Roshan Thomas and Nichiket Sunil in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)
((Nichiket.Sunil@thomsonreuters.com; Roshan.Thomas@thomsonreuters.com;))